probate / inheritance proceedings - consolidation of all assets - giving out bank books to executor

Question

I am in the process of a probate/inheritance since a relative of mine died.

There are different kinds of assets which the executor I hired to process the probate needs to consolidate. He already received necessary informations from the banks etc.

He told me, the next step is to contact the IRS and send them a form / list of all assets. Next, he plans to transfer all money from the different bank accounts to one single account, in order for the split to be easier to handle.

In order to do so, he requires the bank books, which currently are in my physical posession.

He argues, that without them, it will be much harder to get the banks to agree on the transfer and that this would be a time consuming process.

What guarantees, that if I hand out those bank books he does not disappear with all of them?

Is this standard procedure?

If this is important: the location is Sweden, the executor is from https://www.familjensjurist.se/

Answer 1

What guarantees, that if I hand out those bank books he does not disappear with all of them?

Like many things in life, that he would be committing a crime that he could go to jail for and lose his license to practice law.

Especially for an attorney, who is likely somewhat wealthy and has a reasonably successful career. Even if that amount in your bank books is large, he or she doesn't have incentive to risk jail and his or her career to steal your money.

This attorney likely does this all the time as well and maybe even for much larger amounts than you have. If the attorney was going to steal money they likely would have done it already.

In the end, you need to have some trust for professionals that you hire.