Mary, her son Boris and his partner Liz were recently (October 2022) in a car accident in a remote part of Scotland. When the car was found all three were pronounced dead at the scene. Liz’s son, Keir, has attended the office. He is a new client. His mother had a will drafted in 2015 and he was made an executor alongside Boris. He has a photocopy of Liz’s will, which was prepared by another local firm. He also has a photocopy of Boris’ will, also prepared by that same firm. In Boris’ will, only Liz was named as an executor. We can get the principal copies of those wills.
I took some notes from the meeting with Keir. The notes are attached to this memo. Malcolm would usually pick up executry matters, but he is on holiday for the next few weeks. To allow me to go back to Keir soon and give him some advice, I need you to prepare me a note. There are some questions which I need to know the answers to. Please refer to legal sources so I am able to fully explain to Keir what the issues are.
The note should be no longer than 2000 words, inclusive of all footnotes. Please use OSCOLA compliant footnotes. There is no need for a bibliography.
Questions:
1. Keir is a bit unsure what it means to be an executor. I need some contemporary guidance too about what that role involves, and what steps he might need to take. What roles does an executor need to fulfil? Separately, Boris and Mary have both died without a surviving executor. How might Keir go about becoming their executor? (30%)
2. Based on the information we have from my notes, who will get what from the estates of Mary, Boris and Liz? (50%)
3. Boris was married to Suella, albeit they have been separated for 20 years. We are not sure if they ever divorced, so will need to look into this. Assuming they did not divorce, how might this impact the estate distributions in Q2? (20%)