Valuing shares in probate

Recently,I was the beneficiary of a small estate.
It consists of money in bank 10k and some personal items and 150 shares in IL and P.
I decided to let the solicitor do the probate for me and gave him the scheduele of assets.
On a recent visit he showed me a valuation of the shares by a well known firm of stockbrokers and I was shocked that it came to 180e,even tho`the shares are only worth 2.5k.He assured me that this valuation was necessary.
I rang up the probate office and was told that they would accept a tax vouvcher and newspaper value of the shares.
So why get them valued by a stockbroker?
p.s. I am the executor and regret not doing the probate myself.

Why would you need a stockbroker to value shares that are presumably traded on a stock exchange?!? Maybe they were shares in a private company that could not be so easily valued and needed an expert opinion?

ClubMan said:

Why would you need a stockbroker to value shares that are presumably traded on a stock exchange??

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Indeed. I think that was the OP's question

ClubMan said:

Maybe they were shares in a private company that could not be so easily valued and needed an expert opinion?

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OP said they were 150 shares in Irish Life and Permanent

In my opinion it was laziness or lack of knowledge on the part of the solicitor

I mean is ther any valid legal reason for this and what`s in it for the solicitor.
Also is it possible at this stage to stop the solicitor proceeding ?

First of all there is nothing in it for the solicitor. They will not be getting any kind of 'kick-back' from the stock brokers if that is what you are afraid of.

I'd imagine this is a case of a solicitor doing things the way he or she has always done them without taking cognisance of the fact that you can now get share valuations on the internet as of a certain date and for free.

In this case I think you should simply tell the solicitor that they could have gotten this valuation for free, explain that you are disappointed and ask them to reduce their fee by this amount.

If you really want to take the file from the solicitor you can, but be aware that they may have done a great deal of the work on the file already at this stage and so the bulk of the fees may be payable already.