Probate Broker Final Duties - Probate News

Historic probate solicitors firm closes after 250 years of business

2010-03-26T12:10:00.000Z

An historic West Midland law firm has closed its doors after 250 years of business.

Hall Pratt & Pritchard, based in Wolverhampton, is one of the oldest law firms in both the region and the country as a whole. Although it provided general legal services to its clients, since it first opened in 1772, it has focused upon private client instructions such as wills and probate, family law and residential property and conveyancing.

However, the firm has recently gone into administration, closing both its offices in Wolverhampton and Womborne. The Birmingham Post reports that the firms existing clients have been picked up by another Midland law firm, Challinors.

Challinors was brought in by Midland-based recovery and insolvency specialists Leonard Curtis to ensure that service was not interrupted for the firm's clients.

Andy Hodges, chief executive of Challinors, told The Birmingham Post that some 900 files have been transferred to his firm from Hall Pratt & Pritchard and his firm is writing to advise former and current clients of the development.

"We were approached to help Hall Pratt & Pritchard who were about to go into administration" said Hodges, who said his team and partners "didn't hesitate" when asked if they would be able to take over all legal work for clients.

Brothers and sisters fight over farm in contentious probate

2010-03-26T12:04:00.000Z

A contentious probate case has recently been resolved at the High Court, with the judge overturning a Norfolk farmer's last will on the grounds of lack of mental capacity.

The case, which has been locked in the probate service for the past two years, concerned the state of Mr George Key who died in 2009 at the age of 90. The dispute arose between Mr Key's surviving family - between his two sons and his two daughters.

In a will executed in 2001, Mr Key left the bulk of his estate to be divided between his two sons Richard and John, who had managed the farm for many years. His two daughters, Jane and Mary, had moved away several years ago and were left with £15,000 each.

However in 2006, Mr Key's wife Sybil died and both women returned home to comfort him. When the family solicitor visited to hand over the parent's wills, the daughters discovered they would not inherit a share of the farm. A week later Mary drove her father to the solicitors where he executed a new will dividing the bulk of his estate equally between the daughters - and leaving the sons no share of the farm.

When he died in 2008, the sons challenged the will on grounds of want of testamentary capacity and want of knowledge and approval. They alleged that the sisters had behaved improperly.

The sisters vigorously defend the case, until last week when a High Court judge found the 2006 will invalid and expressed doubt over their account of events.

The judge was highly critical of the solicitor who drew up the 2006 will, saying that he contravened the "golden rule". The solicitor should have arranged for a doctor to check Mr Key's mental state said the judge.

Instead, he had "accepted instructions for the preparation of the 2006 will from an 89 year old testator whose wife of 65 years' standing had been dead for only a week, without taking any proper steps to satisfy himself of Mr Key's testamentary capacity." The judge also criticised that the solicitor had failed to take notes on his meeting with Mr Key and Mary, when the instructions for the will were given.

National Will writing week

2010-02-18T09:09:00.005Z

Next week is National Will writing week so it seemed appropriate to write an article on preparing a will. The internet is full of offers of cheap wills but consumers need to be aware.

The first thing to ensure is that the will writer is properly trained, qualified and insured. At the present time will writing is an unregulated profession. So anyone can prepare one. The consequences of getting it wrong can be very serious indeed.

The next thing to ensure is that the will writer does not appoint themselves as an executor or joint executor. If they do so it may prove very difficult for your beneficiaries to remove them when the time comes.

Thirdly it is worth checking to see what fees the solicitor or will writing firm are likely to make for obtaining probate. Many relatives ask the firm holding the will to act for them because they do not feel like shopping around when they have recently been bereaved.

Finally make sure that your will is stored somewhere secure and can be found when it is needed.

Approximately 1/3 of all wills in secure storage facilities are never retrieved.

Final Duties offers a range of will writing services ranging from a will at £69 + VAT to a bespoke face to face will

Probate fee survey

2010-01-25T13:53:00.001Z

In the weeks that follow a bereavement most people do not feel up to shopping around for probate quotes and the vast majority of families use the solicitor who is holding the will or go to a local high street firm. All too often this can prove to be a expensive mistake.

Final Duties the independent probate broker recently obtained quotations on 6 different probate cases from 10 different providers. The difference in the fees charged was staggering. As you can see from the table below the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive probate fee can be as much as 821%.

Estate Value	Final Duties	Average Solicitor	Bank
£20,000	£420	£450	£800
£70,000	£570	£1575	£2800
£180,000	£1520	£4050	£7200
£260,000	£3076	£5850	£10400
£405,000	£1135	£9113	£16000
£750,000	£4700	£16875	£30000
£1,500,000	£7306	£33750	£60000

Commenting on the results of the survey Adam Walker Mangering Director of Final Duties said “In most areas of life the maxim you get what you pay for holds true but this is not always true when it comes to choosing a probate provider. The cheapest quotation actually came from one of the largest firms of specialist probate solictors in the country.”

Adam Walker has the following advice for bereaved families.

1 – Always obtain more than one probate quotation.
2 – Ensure you obtain a fixed fee probate quotation not an estimate that may increase later.
3- Insure that the probate quotation is confirmed in writing before you accept it.
4 – Make sure that the work will be handled by a fully qualified probate soliuctor with specialist knowlewdge of wills, trusts and probate matters.

Final Duties provides a probate fee comparison service for further details go to www.finalduties.co.uk

A cheap will could cost you dear

2010-01-18T09:39:00.002Z

For as long as anyone can remember banks solicitors and will writers have offered cheap wills as a loss leader. Their objective is insert themselves in the will as executors or joint executors. Once they have done so they know they can charge what they like to obtain probate when the time comes. Fees of two three four or even ten times the proper rate are not uncommon.

Final Duties the independent probate broker is campaigning to change what it sees as a very unjust business practise. Adam Walker - Final Duties Managing Director has the following advice for consumers.

1 – if you are writing a new will ,insist that that trusted friends or relatives are appointed as your sole executers. If they need help when the time comes they will be free to appoint a solicitor of their own choice.
2 – if you have an existing will, check to see who is named as executors. If a bank, solicitor or will writer is named as either a sole executor or joint executor you should prepare a codicil to remove them or write a new will.
3 – if you have no suitable friends or relatives to act as executors then you will need to appoint a professional firm. If you do so make sure that you get a detailed written estimate of their charges for administering the estate before you commit yourself .

Final Duties offer a unique probate pre-payment option were you can fix your probate fee in advance.

Final Duties is featured in the Sunday times

2009-12-09T13:59:00.001Z

Final Duties - The independent Probate Broker was featured in a Sunday Times article on the 30th November. The article explored the case of one of their clients, a Mr Francis McCrory, whose late father thought that he had appointed the Woolwich Building Society as executors of his will. When he died his son found that the Woolwich Building Society had subcontracted the work to a third party provider who wanted to charge Mr McCrory over £20,000 to administer his late father's estate and refused to renounce their role as executors.

After a 6 month battle the Woolwich Building Society which is now part of Barclay's Bank group, agreed to renounce their position as executors. Final Duties will now handle the administration of the estate for a fraction of the fee originally quoted.

Final Duties appears on BBC 1

2009-12-04T15:43:00.002Z

Adam Walker, Managing director of Final Duties- The independent Probate Brokers was proud to contribute to the BBC 1 television program 'Rip off Britain'. The programme was shown on BBC1 on Tuesday 1st December. The programme which was presented by Angela Ripon, Gloria Hunniford and Jenny Bond took a critical look at the probate market and featured two cases where a bank and a solicitor had tried to charge the beneficiaries nearly ten times the proper rate for obtaining probate. In both cases the bank and solicitor were appointed in the will or as executors and in both cases they refused to renounce their positions, presumably because they wanted to protect their fees.

The programme demonstrated how a determined beneficiary can bring pressure on a bank or solicitor to renounce their position as executor and asked whether the law should be changed to prevent professional executors from abusing their position.

If you have appointed a bank or solicitor as an executor or joint executor in your will then Final Duties is offering a codicil service to remove them. The cost is £99.00 +VAT.

Frequently Asked Questions - Prepaid Probate

2009-11-16T11:58:00.004Z

How does it work? Individuals, or those advising them, call Final Duties on 0800 731 8722 and complete a probate questionnaire. Final Duties then puts out these details to tender for competitive quotations from specialist probate solicitors. There is no obligation to accept this free of charge quote.

Can you fix probate fees at any time? Yes. Provided the fees are paid before death, the charges will not count for inheritance tax calculations. But most will do this after retirement when the shape of their estate is unlikely to change to any great extent.

What happens to pre-existing wills? The plan costs includes preparing a new will or reviewing an existing will. This will be necessary if an existing will names a bank or other fee-charging organisation as executor. Bequests and other wishes will not be changed.

Why has no one come up with this before? No legal firm has felt able to shoulder the risk of an unknown amount of work at an unknown future time. Final Duties has devised a contract with lawyers that overcomes this problem.

What happens if affairs become more complex after the fixed fee agreement with Final Duties is contracted? Final Duties looks at factors such as the number (rather than value) of assets, liabilities, beneficiaries and trusts when offering an initial quotation. If these change substantially, Final Duties will add on for the extra work. But any such costs can be added to the pre-paid price, taking these fees out of inheritance tax.

How secure is the fixed price fee? Final Duties lodges the amount paid with an independent trust in much the same way as pre-paid funeral fees (where partner Funeral Planning Services has 20 years of experience). The work will be carried out irrespective of whether Final Duties still exists at the time of the probate.

Will individuals know which lawyer will handle their affairs after their death? No. But lawyers will be chosen from a panel selected from the top 500 firms. Using bigger firms ensures there is always an expert probate solicitor available at the time of need.

Does Final Duties use will-writing or other "para-legal" firms? No. It only contracts with solicitors. Pre-payment money is held in the solicitor's client account and is fully protected by the Law Society compensation fund.

Is this suitable for everyone? It is suitable for most people if they can afford the fees now. It is unsuitable for estates where the assets are likely to change significantly, probably not a good idea for those who have not yet retired (unless they have been diagnosed with a terminal illness), for estates where assets such as the family home are jointly held, or for small estates (probate is not needed if the will is worth under £5,000).

Will you be able to pay by instalments? Yes, the fees can be spread over 12 months but the plan does not become active until the final instalment has been paid.

Why shouldn't families do it themselves and save all the probate fees? Leaving aside fixed fees including that for swearing an oath, you can take a DIY approach to probate. This can, however, put pressure on certain family members who may find they lack the time or the legal ability to do this. In any case, Final Duties' ability to lower costs far below the banks and will-writers makes DIY comparatively less attractive. How much does prepayment cost? It is based on the amount of work rather than the value of the estate, unlike the percentages that banks and will writers quote.

Beat the taxman, rising prices and bank rip-offs with first-ever pre-payment probate plan

2009-11-09T10:02:00.003Z

People with wills can keep thousands more out of the clutches of the taxman and the banks ‐ and protect their families against inflation at the same time thanks to a unique pre-payment probate plan, to be launched on Tuesday November 10.

The Final Duties pre-payment probate plan fixed fees beforehand, preventing organisations charging three to four times the going rate for the work. The new plan will revolutionise the costs of probate – the legal process that distributes assets in a will ‐ and prevent families being held to ransom at a time of mourning.

Banks and some other firms can take advantage of the deceased's family and friends being unlikely (or unable) to shop around for the best deal.

The ground-breaking fixed price probate plan, devised by Final Duties, the UK's first and only probate broker, in partnership with Funeral Planning Services protects what is left in wills in three ways.

It beats the taxman. As the Final Duties plan is paid for before the death, the money has already been spent and can't be counted for inheritance tax bills. Unlike funeral charges, probate fees (when incurred after death) cannot be deducted from the value of the estate.

It beats inflation. Once fixed and paid for, there will normally be no extra charges (see notes to editors) no matter how prices rise. Services such as legal work have tended to go up faster than overall inflation.

It beats the banks Final Duties' specialises in shopping around for the best probate deal. So estates will generally pay a fraction of the fees banks and will-writing firms impose (see notes to editors for examples) ‐ the fixed price quoted will take these savings into account.

The Final Duties pre-payment plan can be taken out at any time although most will do this after retirement. The fees will be held by an independent trust which guarantees that the services will be provided when needed. There will be no additional charges unless the estate becomes substantially more complex.

"Every year, over 100,000 people now fix funeral costs with pre-payment plans. This gives substantial comfort to their families who know there will be no need to find funds at a time of grief but is also a guarantee against price inflation. Now, the Final Duties pre-payment probate plan means families will preserve more of the estate, paying less and keeping the fees out of the Inheritance Tax net while also protecting the estate against legal costs inflation," says Adam Walker, managing director of Final Duties, the first ever probate broker.

"We can generally quote probate fees at a fraction of the 4% of the value of the estate (plus VAT) banks and many will-writers typically demand. But because pre-payment avoids Inheritance Tax, the real savings are even greater – a £5,000 pre-payment plan is effectively £3,000 once the tax saving is counted. Consumers should be wary if legal, financial and other advisers don’t offer pre-payment probate as an option," Walker adds.

Power of attorney rules leave vulnerable penniless

2009-10-02T15:39:00.006+01:00

Two years after new Powers of Attorney rules became law, vulnerable people and their families are still at the mercy of banks and other financial institutions.

In one instance, an elderly woman's care home fees have not been paid due to an action by a bank clerk which the family cannot challenge. The woman could face eviction from her home.

When "Lasting Powers of Attorney" replaced "Enduring Powers of Attorney" on October 1, 2007, charities, the government and lawyers hailed it as a major advance. The previous system had become chaotic with no two banks - or even bank branches - interpreting the documents in the same way.

"While it's understandable that banks must protect elderly and other people who are not in full possession of their faculties, to do so in a way that causes pain both to the person supposedly being protected and to that person's family is unforgivable," says Adam Walker of Final Duties, a company that advises on probate and related issues. "One of our clients has been affected directly by this. We - and charities involved in the area - are also aware of many other problems."

Maria Smith (not her real name) suffers from Alzheimer's. The family believed she was covered under an old style enduring power of attorney (which remain valid).

She is still able to sign cheques but in July, she mistakenly signed a cheque as Maria Smith rather than M. Smith.

Her bank (Natwest) refused to pay the cheque and asked her to visit her local branch to sign a new signature mandate.

She visited Natwest with her son to do this. But during the meeting, she made a confusing reference to her late husband.

A bank clerk immediately decided she did not have sufficient mental capacity to continue to operate her bank account.

"The bank has not disclosed what training this clerk had in diagnosing mental capacity but as a result the account was frozen immediately pending production of a valid power of attorney," says Walker.

The bank asked for a copy of the power of attorney which was sent. But this covered both her and her late husband.

In mid August, NatWest wrote to say it required her late husband Robert to 'call into the branch with identification and address verification to complete the necessary power of attorney form' even though the bank was fully aware that Robert had died in May 2008.

"This caused further anguish to the family," says Walker. "The bank's legal department said in a separate letter that the old power of attorney had become invalid on her husband's death. But the real hurt was that with her account frozen, Maria could not pay her £6,500 a month care home bill.

The bank said no money would be paid until it received a new power of attorney which takes up to eight weeks. But as Maria already suffered from dementia, her signature may not be accepted so she would have to wait for a guardianship order from the Court of Protection which can take six months.

"The bank is insensitive. It knows she has made a regular care home payment via direct debit for the past 18 months so why can't that continue as it is obvious what it is? If she fails to pay this, she runs a real risk of eviction. This protects no one except the bank branch which took the decision. The bank refuses to discuss this with the family," says Walker.

"She also has £400,000 trapped in a non-interest bearing account due to the freeze," he adds. 'The new legislation is not working as it was intended. It was supposed to improve matters both for the vulnerable person and for families. The rules need to be applied with more common sense'.

Nearly two months later, the family is still in the dark. And Maria only remains in her home due to the ability of her family to fund the fees.

Other problem areas include:

high legal and registration fees for the Lasting Powers of Attorney process can put off families from completing the applications until it is too late - only those who are legally competent can hand over their affairs via an LPA - the old enduring power of attorney was effectively free although some lawyers made a small charge for the document.
Finances frozen during LPA or Guardianship procedures can lead to losses in falling markets.
Confusion between the LPA for health and welfare matters and that for financial matters
The LPA does not always prevent abusive relatives gaining control over someone's affairs. Other family members find it difficult to rescind an LPA

Yes they can give you a quotation

2009-09-22T13:14:00.002+01:00

Probate solicitors traditionally refuse to give an estimate for the cost of probate fees before they start work. They will tell you that they cannot possibly know how much work will be involved until they have more details about what assets and liabilities are included within the estate. By this time of course you will be committed to using them. In most cases this is complete nonsense. By spending 10 minutes or so asking some carefully chosen questions it perfectly possible for an experienced probate practitioner to gather enough information to give an estimate that is accurate in 99% of all cases. So what questions should you be asked and what impact will your answers have on the final bill for administering the estate?

The first prerequisite is to find out whether the deceased left a valid will. If they did not then the estate will be divided according to the laws of intestacy which is often simpler than the administration of a complex will. The second thing to establish is the number of beneficiaries. Every beneficiary has the right to be copied in on all the solicitors’ correspondence and this will have an impact on the price quoted.

The third thing to establish is how many assets there are in the estate. Every bank account, shareholding, property, life insurance policy, pension and other asset will need to be valued at the date of death and sold. The more assets there are the higher the bill will be. The fourth thing to establish is the number of liabilities. Obviously an estate with lots of debts to settle will take longer to administer than an estate with none.

The above details are enough to give an actual quotation in the great majority of cases. More complex estates might include business assets, farmland or trusts but even in these cases an extra few minutes questioning should be sufficient to give an accurate quotations.

You wouldn't order a meal at a restaurant without knowing how much the food was going to cost and exactly the same rule should apply when you are employing a probate lawyer. It is high time that the ridiculous practice of refusing to give a quote was ended forever.

An end to percentage based probate fees

2009-09-16T10:04:00.002+01:00

Most probate solicitors calculate their fees at £x a per hour plus a percentage of the value of the estate. We feel that this charging basis is fundamentally unjust.

The first problem is that the rate per hour is calculated at the partners charge out rate typically £200 per hour for an established provincial firm. The catch of course is that most of the work is not undertaken by the partner but by an assistant who is probably paid less than £10 per hour.

The second problem is that a chargeable hour is very often not made up of 60 minutes. Many legal firms bill their time in units of 1/10th of 1 hour i.e. there is a minimum charge of 6 minutes. We dealt with a case recently where a client had been charged £72 for 3 unsuccessful phone calls i.e. the recipient of the call did not answer their phone on 3 occasions. This is an outrageous consequence of the result of the 6 minute billing method.

The greatest scandal though is the imposition of an additional charge calculated as a percentage of the value of the estate. The exact percentage varies from one firm to another but a charge of 1% is fairly typical. It takes a probate solicitor exactly the same amount of time to correspond with a bank to close an account regardless of where there is a balance of £1000 or £1 Million. What possible justification can there be for charging one client £10 and the other £10,000 for carrying out exactly the same job of work.

In our opinion percentage based probate fees are wholly unjust and we would like to see the law society change its practice rules in order to discourage their use.

Banks over charge the dead

2009-09-10T16:45:00.000+01:00

The standard charge that banks make to obtain probate and administer a deceased estate is according to their own websites around 4% of the value of the estate. In our both opinion the size of the fee and the method by which it is calculated are completely indefensible.

Take an extreme example where a person dies leaving £1 Million in a single bank account, no other assets and no other debts. The money is all to go to a single beneficiary. The amount of work necessary to administer this very simple estate would be a maximum of 5 hours for which a fair charge would be perhaps £2,500. The bank would charge £40,000. It's outrageous but if the banks are appointed as an executor then there is nothing that the beneficiaries can do to stop this.

What really sticks in the throat though is that many banks don't even carry out the probate work themselves. They subcontract it to outside probate providers who typically charge them fees of 1% or less. This mean they are making a 400% profit margin.

The current system is unjust, unfair and unsustainable. It is high time that it was stopped but in an age where several of the high street banks are owned by the government who will have the courage to deal with it?

Solicitors and Probate

2009-08-26T13:20:00.000+01:00

In my experience most reputable solicitors will renounce their role as executors if asked to do so by the beneficiaries. However in recent months we have seen a sharp increase in the number of cases where executors refuse to renounce.

The law says if a bank, solicitor or will drafter refuses to renounce their role then there is almost nothing that can be done to make them. The only option is to make an application to the high court to have them removed by such actions are highly unusual.

Final Duties was involved recently with a case in Liverpool where a firm of solicitors who were appointed as sole executors have failed to commence the administration of the estate more than a year after the death. The client went to the high court and the judge made an order to terminate their Executorship on the 19th August. Such applications however are extremely rare.

Final Duties is also involved in a ground breaking test case which will be heard in the high court in London on the 20th October. We have made an application under section 116 of the supreme court act 1981 to remove a professional executor solely on the grounds that they are over-charging the estate for probate services. We are not aware of any previous case when the act has been used in this way and if we are successful tens of thousands of people per year will gain the right to choose their own executor rather than being forced to use the person named in the will, this could save consumers tens of millions of pounds every year.