In several of the cases I looked at, Craybeck Law – and chiefly Ron Hiller – not only acted as attorney but also executor of clients’ wills.
An executor is legally responsible for carrying out the instructions in a person’s will and handling their estate.
However, in at least two cases, Mr Hiller seems to have ignored the instructions he was given. One client was surprised when I told her that the will he had drawn up for her split her estate between four charities – including one she had never heard of.
Another client told me he had not seen a copy of a will Mr Hiller had drawn up for him, and did not understand its contents.
Valerie in Borehamwood also appointed Mr Hiller as attorney and executor of her will. After she died in 2022, it emerged that her family had been left out of her will and her entire estate – estimated at about £220,000 – was left to a police charity.
Her brother and sister-in-law, John and Kaye, live in Australia and were not well-placed to challenge the will. The fact that family members were no longer beneficiaries also meant they were not entitled to any financial information.
“We couldn’t see how much [Ron Hiller] was charging for probate or how much he charged every year for being her power of attorney,” Kaye told me.
Ann Stanyer, a leading lawyer in this field, told me that if an attorney is also the executor of a will, there is much less scope for proper scrutiny: “They can both operate the powers of attorney during their lifetime and take fees through that, but they can then take big fees from the estate as well.”
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