Is a solicitor allowed to withhold a will from an executor?

[xylophone]

My sister and I are trying to get hold of a copy of my mum's will because we believe that, rather than leaving everything to our stepdad, our mum left some of her estate to us. My sister is the executor on the will. However, the solicitor is also our stepdad's solicitor and they know that we want to challenge his claim on the estate so they have said they can't let my sister have it as it is a conflict of interest.

I can't believe this can be right. Surely a solicitor can't refuse to give a will to an executor on the grounds that it might harm the interests of another client.

A second question is: Is the solicitor allowed to tell our stepfather we have asked to see the will? We know that if he finds out he will be furious, and if we are mistaken about the content of the will we will have stirred up a hornets' next for no reason.

[atticus]

I assume that your mother has died (you do not say). Complain to the SRA.

Q2. Yes.

[xylophone]

I assume that your mother has died (you do not say). Complain to the SRA.

Q2. Yes.

Thanks for your advice on the SRA.

Yes, our mum has died. My step father has just assumed everything has gone to him, there's been no probate.

How is the solicitor allowed to tell our step father that we asked for the will? Surely a solicitor can't just take it upon themselves to tell one client about the affairs of another client?

Many years ago our mother told my sister and me that her husband thought everything in her will went to him. But (because she didn't trust him to pass it on to us after his death) she had secretly returned to the solicitor and added a codicil whereby an amount was set aside for my sister and me first. If my mother was able to make this codicil without my stepfather being informed surely we must be able to access it without him being informed?

[atticus]

You had not previously said that you are also this solicitor's client. Go to the SRA.

[xylophone]

Sorry, for not being clear. I am not the solicitor's client. My mother is (or rather was when she was alive). Surely this is a matter between my mother as the client, my sister as the executor of my mother's will and the solicitor?

Surely the solicitor can't just choose to tell my step dad simply because he is also a client? When we asked them to treat it with confidence they said they may have to tell him.

[Pezza54]

How do you know your sister is named as the executor in the will if you haven't seen the will and your sister hasn't got a copy?

If your sister is named as executor the solicitor has a duty of care to provide her with a copy of the will and I am struggling to believe the solicitor isn't aware of their duty.

If your mother held joint assets with your stepdad and/or had a small amount of savings which the bank can release without probate, then probate is not required. If this is the case her will does not become a public document and remains private between the solicitor and executor.

The executor, not the solicitor, has a duty of care to the beneficiaries. So unless your sister is the named executor, neither of you have a right to obtain a copy of the will from the solicitor.

[xylophone]

I have seen the will and I know that my sister is the executor. Without wishing to go too much into family dynamics I am 100% certain that my mother would have put my sister as executor of any version of her will.

Furthermore if my sister were not the executor the solicitor would only have to say "you can't have the will because you're not the executor", which is what they said to me when I requested it and which I understand. But they didn't say that, they said "you can't have the will because there is a conflict of interest".

[Pezza54]

Their duty of care to the executor to provide the will overrides any conflict of interest.
Your sister should write to the solicitor. If that doesn't help, she should write to the Law Society and then the legal ombudsman

[atticus]

Formal complaint time!