ss wrote :
Yes thats all been done and all mileage timed dated and costed. The balance
sheet has been done on excel, its a simple estate but just not sure where I
was to put the personal expenses.

Already had WW3 over the damn thing which was expected but everything tidy
this end, and its only a small financial gain!

In my case I had been named as one of three executors, the other two
being solicitors, with three main beneficiaries, me one of the three.
The legal fees could have taken great lumps out of the what had been
left.

So I got everyone to agree to asking the solicitors to renounce their
involvement (and fat fee). The law societies recommendation had just
been changed to - unless there was a very good reason for them to
retain their involvement (other than the fat fee), when asked they must
renounce and they did.

I then spent 12 months settling everything, gaining Probate, paying off
the bills etc. it was fairly straight forward and was ready to be
settled after 5 months, that is until the DWP became involved,
investigating and leaking their cut. That held up paying out for a
further 7 months. The DWP keep a close eye on deaths and on Probate
values submitted, so it is unsafe to pay anything out until around a
couple of months after Probate is granted, on chance that the DWP try
to claw money back.

I simply agreed a flat fee to be paid to me, for all the time and
effort involved in doing the work, of a donation of £500 by the other
two benefactors. I could have allowed the solicitors to handle it and
they would have been entitled to up to 25% of the value of the estate,
which would have wiped out all or most of the cash assets and the two
got nothing. So for the grand sum of £1000, they got a bargain.

I was left the entire property, the other two the financial assets.

The extra 7 months delay, caused the cash benefactors to blame me for
the delays and it got to the point of them threatening physical
violence against me in their demands. At one stage of the proceedings,
legal enquiries had been made to see if they might be able to dispute
the Will and claim the property as well as the cash - judging by what
one of the two had let slip in a ranting phone call.