Administration of a will

caycro

I have just reviewed a recently deceased relative's will and the surviving spouse inherits everything has been appointed as the executor of the will. However, there is a statement as follows : "It is my WISH that my estate is administered by the offices of X & Y Solicitors" the surviving spouse can't remember why this was inserted .... is it now a requirement that this law firm is used as administrator or can the spouse go ahead and administer it themselves? Thanks

busylady

As far as I know the spouse is free to administer the estate themselves or choose a different firm of solicitors. A "wish" in a will is not legally binding.

Hannibal Smith

You'll probably find the solicitor who drafted the will is the same as those mentioned in the wish.

I would think if the rest of the will uses wording such as 'I direct. ..' then it would definitely dilute the paragraph regard the solicitor.

coylemj

The executor is under no obligation to use that firm of solicitors. A similar 'wish' was included in a will which named me as executor, I didn't use any solicitor and did personal probate. It appears to be something that a lot of solicitors include and TBH is pretty underhand as people who didn't know any better might feel that it was a binding direction which it is not so as far as I'm concerned there is no legitimate reason for it to be included in any will.

Peregrinus

It's not binding at all. There may be a case for such a clause if the testator has complex legal affairs that his existing solicitors are on top of, and there will be a briefing cost/inefficiency associated with instructing a different set of lawyers, but that would be fairly rare. I'd say in 99% of cases there is no justification for such a clause.