BBC Radio 4 Consumer Programme ‘You and Yours’ highlight the vulnerability of Executors to personal claims

The BBC Radio Four Consumer Programme ‘ You and Yours’ has highlighted just how vulnerable executors are in terms of their personal liability to claims.

A listener who had been named as an executor in her mother’s will contacted the programme for help.  She explained she had taken on the role of executor as a promise to her mother, saying she felt it was ‘ a moral duty..’ and that she wanted to give her mother ‘…peace of mind’.  She had now found herself caught in the middle of a nightmare scenario, with an unexpected claim on the estate which had been totally unpredictable.

Her mother’s will had unexpectedly been disputed by another party which prevented any assets being liquidated but had left her as the executor personally liable for spiralling legal defence costs of £90,000 even though the whole estate was valued at no more than £150,000.