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.