Role of trustee of a will

I was a trustee, there were three, one being the Bank of hell The Bank did all the practical legal adminstration and bossed us about advised us re investments etc. The Bank was paid (an extortionate amount) from the Trust's funds, the trustees were not paid other than expenses.

As a trustee (l think with property there has to be at least two trustees) you can appoint a professional company to deal with the rentals/tax returns etc if you don't want to do it yourself, obviously they will be paid from the trust (possibly out of the rental income if that's the only funds). You can do it all yourself, if you have the time and inclination (if you are renting out property you will in effect be the landlord, it's time consuming and thankless, though you could possibly pay yourself out of any funds).

I wasn't asked in advance and had no knowledge of the trust until the death of the person who set it up. I could have refused but was presented with a fait accompli. It was a huge amount of money and the responsibility and hassle were a burden. Once you have accepted the role there is no escape. That's my experience in a nutshell, never again, it was the last thing l needed to have to do whilst coping with bereavement. I would think very carefully about it.

This link explains the role well.

What is a Trustee in a Will? | Kings Court Trust share.google/2GK3VEzD39dqLBKbZ

By the way, we dismissed the Bank after a couple of years (they kept saying we couldn't, but we did) and did everything ourselves. It saved the trust a fortune with no ill effect.

Dear OldFrill, thank you very much for your reply and for confirming what I thought was involved.

Since posting I have also looked up more about the role. I didn't know that two trustees are normally appointed where the trust has assets of property.

Thank goodness I was asked in advance! It seems ridiculous that you can be appointed without your knowledge and then it is too late to refuse.

I don't intend to accept the role now that I know more about it as it looks like I would be responsible for all the work whilst my sister swans arounds receiving all the net rental income. As trusts pay 45% tax and the costs of professional advisers won't come cheap my sister may not earn as much as she might expect, but perhaps she wouldn't be taxed personally on the net rental income as the trust will already have paid the tax on it.

Thanks once again.

To be fair to her, I don't think she (or my brother-in-law) understand what the role involves. I realise that the trustee could employ professional advisers to deal with it all but the legal responsibility for getting everything right rests with the trustee, and from my experience, professional advisers sometimes get things wrong and what they do has to be checked. This could be time consuming.

Ramblingrose - l think it would be a stressful and thankless task. I believe everything I've said is true but it was some time ago that l was involved and I'm not an expert. You would be wise to diplomatically bow out and suggest your BinL investigates all options.