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| Thread ID: 86848 | 2008-01-30 09:32:00 | Lawyers: How to maximize fees | Mercury (1316) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 635544 | 2008-01-30 09:32:00 | Elderly widow who is sole executor and beneficiary under husband's will. Has a joint bank account with deceased husband. Lawyer: - Divert proceeds of life insurance through trust account. Charge fee to do this. Extract own fees out of proceeds. Hang onto $5,000 in case it is needed for "tax". Presumably charge fees for tax cheques. - Suggest his law firm is a better solution for a final tax return than an accountant who has been doing their tax for years (helps if you hang on to the "tax" money to encourage this to happen) Things I discovered today: - Get new widow to sign form diverting share dividends to his trust account rather than going to the joint account. Presumably charge more fees to pay this out to widow. - Instruct Share Brokers if the shares are to be sold, rather than transferred as requested, proceeds are to go to his... wait for it... trust account rather than the joint account. More fees? Fortunately the share stuff happened over Christmas, the share brokers had a change in staff and today it was still in the pending file. What else has he done? I can't ask him as he sacked Mum as a client on Christmas Eve after I hit the roof over his earlier stunts and he isn't talking to me. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 635545 | 2008-01-30 09:53:00 | I shudder to think what he is going to charge you for keeping quiet. ;) I imagine hush money for a lawyer is rather expensive. Just remember that 97% of lawyers give the rest a bad name. |
R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 635546 | 2008-01-30 10:35:00 | If you feel that a lawyer has acted inappropriately, has charged unreasonable fees or has acted in an inappropriate or unprofessional manner then you should contact the Law Society (http://www.nz-lawsoc.org.nz/). The law society has the ability to review lawyers' fees and can initiate disciplinary action against lawyers breaching professional ethics. You and your mother (technically she probably has to initiate any complaints) should probably contact them and discuss what has happened to get advice on how to proceed from here. P.S. For a lawyer to refuse to see a client would need really good justification. That by itself may be considered unethical. Standard disclaimer: IANAL |
TGoddard (7263) | ||
| 635547 | 2008-01-30 10:39:00 | In my rather varied career I did end up in a lot of law offices for a few years doing some contract work. Most of the lawyers seemed like good guys. But this one... The stuff he has done would be perfectly acceptable (except for the accountant bit) if there were two or more beneficaries. But a sole beneficiary, in her 80's and extremely deaf? Particularly as it was a spouse with a joint bank account. I don't get angry often (say every three or four years... maybe) but this is really winding me up. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 635548 | 2008-01-30 10:42:00 | Lmao. As if they would see anything wrong with the man putting it all through his trusted systems and charging a reasonable fee for doing so. |
Metla (12) | ||
| 635549 | 2008-01-30 10:48:00 | I checked out the law society site a few weeks ago and have been contemplating making a complaint. I doubt though that it is technically fraud as he did get Mum to sign some papers. And he hasn't technically fired her as a client, merely suggested that she "pick up her file". Ethical? Borderline. As far as I'm concerned he inserted himself as middleman for the purpose of obtaining extra fees but the law society might see it differently. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 635550 | 2008-01-30 14:51:00 | as far as I know it's exceptionally rare for the law society to pursue any complaint to the satisfaction of the complainent.....and it's even rarer for any lawyer to be disciplined by them..... | drcspy (146) | ||
| 635551 | 2008-01-30 19:53:00 | "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". - (William Shakespeare, King Henry VI,Act IV, Scene II).:2cents: | Ferg (2559) | ||
| 635552 | 2008-01-30 20:02:00 | Out of interest, is it actually necessary to go to a lawyer after someone dies? My father-in-law died last year and when my husband phoned to inform him he just said to "pop in sometime". He didn't say she had to make an appointment to go in and sign things or anything and as far as I know she still hasn't. I don't know what happens with the will though. She was also the sole beneficiary. |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 635553 | 2008-01-30 21:11:00 | If all assets are joint - no problems. Unfortunately my parents were from the old school who each had their shares in their own names. Also Dad's insurance policy was in his name only and didn't name a beneficary (good one Dad!). If you have personal assets worth more than $11,000 then it needs to go to probate. Then the apartment needed to be transferred from joint ownership to mum. Shortly after Dad died one of his caregivers had a death in the family - the girl's mother. She left a husband and several kids. No assets except a $100,000 life insurance policy, again with no beneficiary named. Also no will. That needed lawyers to go to Court to sort out. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
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