What is the difference between an Executor and an Administrator?
An Executor is the person appointed in a Will to administer the estate. They have the legal responsibility to collect in all of the assets of a person’s estate, pay all of the liabilities and distribute the Will to the beneficiaries in accordance with the terms of the Will. They have a legal responsibility to do this correctly and in a timely fashion.
An Administrator is the person appointed by law where a Will has not been made by the deceased. The intestacy rules set out those persons who are entitled to share a person’s estate and those same people are entitled to act as the Administrator of the estate. The Administrator performs the same function as the Executor of a Will.
There can be up to four Executors or four Administrators appointed to administer a person’s estate.
Acting as an Administrator or an Executor is an important role. Most people carry out this role diligently and in accordance with the law. Many Executors and Administrators ask solicitors to carry out the day to day work on their behalf.
Unfortunately, some Executors and Administrators do not perform their role properly. This might be because they do not properly understand what is expected of them and they have not asked a solicitor to help them, or because they have purposely chosen not to perform the role correctly, for their own reasons.
How we can help
Disputes with Executors and Administrators impact greatly upon the handling of an estate. However, our expert team of Specialist Solicitors are very experienced in resolving these disputes. Find out more by reading some recent case studies.
What disputes against an Executor or Administrator might arise?
There are many areas where a beneficiary might have concerns about how the Executor or the Administrator is performing their role
This might concern the decisions which the Executor or Administrator is taking. These are examples of the common areas where beneficiaries have cause to complain about the actions or omissions of an Executor or an Administrator:
• Selling an asset in the estate for less than its true market value.
• Taking ownership of assets themselves, instead of selling them to distribute the cash funds for the beneficiaries.
• Misinterpreting the meaning of the terms of the Will so the instructions in the Will are not being correctly followed.
• Failing to settle the deceased’s debts properly before distributing the funds to the beneficiaries.
• Delaying payment of inheritance to the beneficiaries.
• Refusing to provide the beneficiaries with information about the assets and liabilities of the estate. This is known as the Estate Accounts and allows the beneficiaries to understand the steps taken by the Executor or the Administrator.
If you are a beneficiary of an estate and you have concerns that any of these types of problems have occurred, you may be able to make a claim against the Executor or Administrator.
What can you do if you are in dispute with an Executor or an Administrator?
You should try and address the problem with the Executor or Administrator before going to court
If you do not feel able to do this or if the Executor or Administrator refuses to talk to you about your concerns, Jordans Solicitors can assist you. It is usually the case that most concerns can be resolves amicably once a solicitor has been instructed to address the issue with them.
If however these negotiations do not resolve the problem, there are three main ways which you can address these types of issues with the Executor or an Administrator:
1. You can ask the Court to remove the Executor or the Administrator and appoint someone new in their place to act. This might be you or another family member or a professional person such as a solicitor, so the role is performed properly. This is useful where the Executor or Administrator is not doing their job and delaying the administration of the estate or they are not following the terms of the Will or the intestacy rules where there is no Will.
2. You can ask the Court to order the Executor or Administrator to file with the Court an Estate Account and any monies which they have already collected in on behalf of the estate. This is useful if you fear the Executor or the Administrator is not being transparent about the estate and its contents.
3. You can make a claim against the Executor or Administrator for any losses which you believe the estate has incurred as a result of their failures such as where an asset has been sold at an undervalue or monies have been given to the wrong beneficiary or in the incorrect amounts. If a solicitor is acting on behalf of the Executor or an Administrator and they have made the mistake, you may have a Professional Negligence Claim against that solicitor.
Disputes with
Executors & Administrators
If you wish to resolve a Dispute with an Executor or Administrator, then call our team on 033 0300 1103. We offer an initial, FREE consultation during which you can explain your situation and we can advise you about how best to proceed. And for an inital, set fee we can carry out preliminary investigations on your behalf to establish whether the process is likely to succeed.