Ray received a concerning email alerting him to a shocking fee hike for the execution of an elderly woman’s estate.

Listener Nick wrote to Ray after making the discovery while sorting through his mother’s affairs after her passing last month.

“Mum did her will in 1999 and at that time appointed the Permanent Trustee Company to be the executor. At the time she agreed to executor fees of 1% of the estate when she passed away.

Permanent were subsequently taken over by the Perpetual Company (Perpetual), and much to our horror, their fees are four times that to which she agreed! We’re talking the difference between about $40,000 and now about $140,000!

Perpetual have admitted they didn’t tell my mum about these new fees, but they are insisting we pay them! How can they just increase the fees and not tell mum before she died? Disgraceful!

And what’s worse is that Perpetual’s executor fees are more than 10 times (yes 10 times!) the NSW government fixed fees that a solicitor can charge.”

Ray speaks to Nick who says the company never informed his mother of the change in fees.

“They said ‘no, we didn’t tell her’.

“They’ve told us that they no longer charge 1% and their actual fees now are about 4%.”

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