How common is it for a solicitor to be appointed executor?

ClubMan said:
the solicitor is the executor. Is that common?
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Brendan Burgess said:
Widespread. But let's not go off topic.
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Respectfully Brendan, I don't believe it is at all widespread.

However, we don't need to prefer my opinion over yours, because this is a factual matter and the public data can be accessed by anybody on the courts website.

It is easy to get a list of all grants of probate or administration issued in the past year (or any year). This includes the name of the deceased, date of death and the person who obtained the grant (i.e. who is the acting executor or administrator). That information is available at no cost on the courts website.

It is equally easy to take such a list and google the names of each person who obtained a grant to see (with reasonable accuracy) how many of them are, or are likely to be, solicitors.

Within that small subset of names who might be solicitors (and in my opinion it will be a small subset) some of them will indeed be solicitors who were named as executors in a will. However, many of them will be solicitors who were not named in a will but who are acting under a power of attorney for a non-resident executor (the grant of probate in such circumstances will issue to the solicitor).

I would be astonished if the 'possible' matches came back at any more than 1 in 20 (and the actual matches would obviously be a subset of this).

EDIT: this exercise would not harvest data for solicitors who had been named as executors in wills, but who had renounced their executorship.
 
It can be very costly to appoint a solicitor as an Executor as the beneficiaries have no control over their costs. Much better to appoint a trusted family member who can then agree a fixed fee with a solicitor.

I recall one time being asked by a solicitor who was acting as an Executor to prepare a valuation for a shareholding and he said “charge whatever you want”. I gently scolded him and carried out the valuation for a “normal” fee.

Jim Stafford
 
I think it might be recommended to have a second executor who is a solicitor and might be handling the work in any case especially if already a family connection.
 
What happens when the Solicitor is appointed as Executor but the charging clause is not witnessed correctly (say, by the other staff members in the solicitor's office)?
 
JimmyB99 said:
What happens when the Solicitor is appointed as Executor but the charging clause is not witnessed correctly (say, by the other staff members in the solicitor's office)?
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If a staff member of the solicitor's office witnesses the will then the solicitor is not allowed to charge fees (unless the beneficiaries specifically agree them.)

Jim Stafford
 
Thanks for your reply, Jim

For the avoidance of doubt, are you saying that the beneficiaries need to agree that the solicitor may charge fees or are you saying that beneficiaries need to agree the specific fees being charged?
 
Hi Jim,

The info in #9 is not quite consistent with what you wrote in #7?
 
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