Executors expenses: how much is appropriate/correct to ask for expences Uncles Will?

[looselastick]

Hi
Could anyone give me some advice on how much is appropriate or correct to ask for, in the U.K. for expenses whilst acting as executor to my Uncle's Will.
I know that I am unable to claim for 'time', but would welcome advice on claiming for sending and receiving mail, meetings, telephone calls, travelling etc. All of which have been many and I have details of.

Loo

 

[Sue Ellen]

Re: Executors expenses !

You may not be aware that this is an Irish web site so any advice offered may not be relevant to a U.K. situation.

 

[looselastick]

Re: Executors expenses !

Hi Sue.
Thanks for replying. I do understand that this is an Irish forum but I have scoured the net to try to find advice on this but had no luck at all.
Came across this forum by chance and having read some of the good advice given to others I just hoped someone could help me.

Loo.

 

[Padraigb]

Re: Executors expenses !

Been there, done that. The key for me was the idea of "reasonable". I can't, for example, think of a reasonable non-zero amount that you can claim for receiving mail.

The first thing I did was to buy a good hard-cover notebook in which I recorded everything I did, particularly including every financial transaction, even the smallest -- and the first entry was the cost of the notebook.

Postage is easy -- the cost of stamps and fees like those for registering some letters. I made what I thought were reasonable estimates for stationery and telephone costs, and told the beneficiaries in order to be sure that they agreed I was being reasonable. Motoring I charged at the rate that I was allowed by my employer. Everything else (including a few meals taken away from home) was specific outlay, and I kept all the receipts.

Had I lost any income -- say taking time off work to deal with estate matters -- I would have claimed that, but it didn't arise.

It helped greatly that the beneficiaries all trusted me.

 

[p810662]

Executor Expenses:

I’m one of a small number of beneficiaries of a close relative’s will. The two executors are firstly a co-beneficiary and secondly a lesser-involved non-beneficiary.

I feel that the primary executor has incurred excessive expenses. Can I review the expenses before the final distribution of the assets?

The primary beneficiary brought in an auctioneer although all the beneficiaries had earlier agreed that there wasn’t a need for any auctioneer (the property was sold within the family). This expense is 1% of the realized value of the property sold which makes up about 2/3rds of the total value of the assets. An additional expense to 'clear out' the property was also incurred although this too wasn’t needed as it was sold within the family. This second large expense could be about the same as the auctioneer and so these expenses are running at about 2% of the value of the property.

I believe these avoidable expenses are at about 1.66% of the total assets of the deceased.

When I communicated with the solicitor for the execution of the will I was informed that “it is by law the responsibility solely of the executors to assess what are legitimate expenses of the estate and authorise payment of them. “ thus giving me the impression that the executors can run up any expenses and not be audited or brought to account about them.

Can anyone point me to where I might find on the internet any rules or regulations that might allow beneficiaries review expenses or challenge known expenses (the auctioneers 1% being paid although all beneficaries initially agreed it wasn’t necessary) ?

Thanks