Can A Professional Executor Charge The Estate? Authority Must Come First

Practical lessons from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College v QLaw Legal Services Ltd [2026] EWHC 2090 (SCCO).

Administering an estate after someone’s death can involve a significant amount of legal and administrative work. Rather than leaving family members to navigate these responsibilities alone, many people choose to appoint a professional as a co-executor, drawing on their experience and expertise to help manage the process and ease the burden at an already difficult time.

A professional executor may do extensive work that benefits an estate. The co-executor, or co-executors, may know that charges are being made for this work and may even receive estimates and invoices without objection. But none of this necessarily gives the professional executor a legal right to be paid.