On 8/11/2014 11:34 AM, Ema Nymton wrote:
> On 8/11/2014 8:24 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
>> On 2014-08-11 7:49 AM, jmcquown wrote:
>>
>>> There's a heck of a lot involved, that's for sure. I can't think of one
>>> good reason anyone would *want* to be the executor of an estate.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> My brother has a friend who is a lawyer who ha a lot of elderly clients.
>> He has written up wills for them and written himself in as executor. He
>> starts off every morning checking out the obituaries. When he sees a
>> client's name he locks up the house and sends in an assessor to
>> calculate the value..... so he can claim his fee, which will be a
>> percentage of the value of the estate.
>
> That sounds disgusting, it sounds like he is anxiously waiting for his
> clients to die.

Common practice in most law firms. They maintain a file of wills they
have written and check the obits every AM. BTDT

>
> Most banks have excellent trust departments and since they are corporate
> entities they will not die or move away. I would use a bank as executor
> before I would choose an attorney. However, either one of them can be
> crooked.


I have come across crooked banks and crooked lawyers, but if they are
caught, the law deals very harshly with them. My last fiduciary
position was for a bank. I handled charitable trusts, endowment funds,
private foundations (I gave away other people's money) and some really
interesting legally mandated trusts.

One group was cemeteries. The state required certain cemeteries to put
money in trust for each grave they dug. That way if the cemetery went
broke, there would be funds to maintain it. I was an auxiliary member
of the state cemetery association. They had a convention in Atlantic
City every year and I went. Boy those people know how to party!

Another was shipping trusts. Cargo ships had to maintain a US based
trust in case their ships did damage to our ports. I mostly dealt with
a Wall Street law firm on those and the fellows were just wonderful to
work with. I kept trying to buy them lunch on my expense account and
they always insisted they pay. They even offered me a great deal on a
Cunard sailing if I'd had wanted it. Wish I'd taken them up on it.

The most interesting was the "World War Three" trusts, an internal
nickname. These trusts held the patents and plans from a Swiss
pharmaceutical company in safe keeping in, of all places, Newark, NJ,
so they could not be stolen if someone invaded Switzerland. I'm not
kidding. They were closed before I left the bank, so I can speak about
them safely.






--
From somewhere very deep in the heart of Texas