Executors are individuals nominated in a Last Will and Testament to finalise the affairs of a deceased person and distribute the deceased’s assets in accordance with the terms of the Will. But what do you do if you are a beneficiary of that Will and feel as though the executor, or the executor, are not managing the estate properly or lawfully?
Acting as an executor can be a very onerous and difficult role and the majority of executors are family members of the deceased person, not professionals with experience in carrying out such tasks. It is always advisable that an executor engages a lawyer to act on their behalf when administering a deceased estate to ensure that they comply with all tasks required of them.
The executor’s relationship with the beneficiaries of the estate is fiduciary in nature, meaning that the executor must act in the best interests of the beneficiaries. Unfortunately there are circumstances where the executor does not act in the beneficiaries best interests. This may be that the executors are simply not administering the estate quickly enough, perhaps the executor is putting themselves in a position of conflict whereby they may be favouring their own personal interests or, in some cases, maybe the executor has misappropriated estate funds.
Beneficiaries have rights when an executor is not acting appropriately. An application can be filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland to remove an executor. For such application to be successful, the Court must be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to support that the executor is not appropriate to continue acting in the role. If a Court is satisfied of this, the Court may nominate a substitute executor named in the Will, a beneficiary or an independent person (generally an experienced Solicitor) to resume the role of executor to ensure the estate is finalised in a timely and proper manner.
If you are the beneficiary of an estate and believe that the executors are not acting in your best interests, give McNamara Law a call on 1300 285 888 or send your enquiry to estates@mcna.com.au.
