Suppose You Die When Your Child Is A Year Old.
Read More About:
Want to make a start on your will?
Making a Will is not about wealth it is about making sure that what you want to happen to your estate does happen. It gives you the opportunity to specify such things as who will administer your estate, who will care for your children and who will receive specific items of your property.
The trust would last at least 17 years, probably longer if you have specified that the money is to be paid over at an age later than 18. Do you really wish to burden a relative for that period? The duty of care on trustees is so onerous, particularly since the coming into force of The Trustee Act 2010, that it is scarcely reasonable to burden a lay person with the office for over twenty years.
Another reason for professional trustees, which sadly is becoming more and more important in these increasingly litigious times, is that they carry insurance.
They are also subject to the rules and disciplinary procedures of their profession.
If a lay executor runs off with the money intended for the beneficiaries there is in reality little the beneficiaries can do. Criminal proceedings may follow, compensation may be awarded but whether it will be paid is another matter.
Professional executors carry insurance in case they make a mistake (professional negligence) and solicitors have a compensation scheme where theft has occurred.
If you have an ongoing relationship with a firm of solicitors, you may feel happier leaving your affairs in the hands of someone you already know and trust. You have the choice of appointing the firm itself (in reality, the partners at the time of your death) or a named solicitor within it.
Banks will also act as executors but their charges are generally much higher than those charged by solicitors.
Your bank can give you details of its current charges but (as with solicitors’ charges) the charges at the time of your death may well be higher. It is always the scale in force at the date of death that applies. If you appoint your bank, the work will be handled by whichever member of their staff in the executor and trustee department is available at the time.
It is not possible to appoint an individual staff member as it is with a solicitor.
Banks may also renounce probate if requested to do so or the estate turns out to be too small to warrant their involvement.