Blended families lead to rise in executors being sued

An increase in the number of “blended families”, together with rising property values, have led to a glut of legal actions against executors of wills.
High Court claims in England and Wales against executors have risen by more than 20 per cent in a year. Although the overall numbers are still relatively low, lawyers have said that the cases that go to court are equivalent to only a fraction of the disputes that are settled before going before a judge.
Claims frequently involve allegations of a breach of fiduciary duty, when an executor responsible for administering a will is accused of failing to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries.
Commonly, it is claimed that an executor has distributed the assets of a deceased person against the terms of the will. Other claims involve allegations of harming an estate through neglect, or accusations that an executor has acted in the interest of some beneficiaries to the detriment of others.
Executors, who can be related to the deceased, administer the distribution of an estate once probate — the legal process of proving that a will is valid — has been granted.
Figures compiled by specialist lawyers have shown that there were 87 High Court claims against executors last year, up from 72 the previous year.
The lawyers said that court proceedings over actions taken by executors were typically the result of “inactivity, poor decision-making or general familial disharmony with regards to how to deal with assets in an estate”.
Those issues are said to be increasingly common in so-called blended families — in which partners have their own children and at least one other child from a previous relationship — and cases in which an estranged family has to deal with the administration after the death of a relative.
Caroline Foulger, a partner at TWM Solicitors, the firm that analysed the figures, said that “fluctuating property prices” could also prompt legal disputes with executors.
In addition, Foulger said, delays in the granting of probate had “added to the complexity of dealing with an estate [and] have resulted in there being more opportunities for things to go wrong when administering an estate, and more at stake if it does”.
Government figures showed that in the 12 months to last November, more than 301,000 grants of probate were made in England and Wales.
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MPs on the justice committee accused the probate office this year of being beset by chronic delays that left bereaved relatives suicidal or unable to heat their homes. At a hearing in the spring, MPs were shown government data revealing that the number of cases taking six months to be approved had risen by 112 per cent to 6,942 between 2020 and last year.
Cases taking more than nine months rose by 94 per cent, to 3,237. There were 969 cases that took longer than a year, up by 65 per cent, and 362 cases that took longer than 18 months, a 43 per cent rise.
At the time, experts pointed out that lengthy delays in the granting of probate were particularly difficult for beneficiaries who were vulnerable for health or financial reasons. There have been cases of beneficiaries becoming suicidal over delays in inheritance.
Although it is understood that probate office systems are becoming more efficient, Foulger said that executors were increasingly being accused of exacerbating delays in the granting of probate and that the choice of administrator was crucial when drafting wills as “costly disputes can very easily happen”.
She added that it had become “too common for executors to feel that they have the right to make decisions against what it is in a will”.