Banks and _wills
Sir: The Government has directed that what would have been protracted court pro- ceedings against the Stock Exchange be abandoned, thereby, it is reported, saving millions of pounds in costs. Will the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry now use his statutory powers to compel the Director-General of Fair Trading, at a mere fraction of that cost, to investigate the widespread overcharging by bank trustee departments? The activities of the banks touch many thousands of people of small means who are persuaded by clever advertising to allow banks to act as their executors/trustees. After the testators' death their beneficiaries (very frequently widows in reduced circum- stances) find that a sizable chunk of a modest inheritance is taken for its fees by the bank which testators believed would care for their near and dear ones.
Stanley Best
Chairman, British Legal Association, 116 London Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Well's, Kent
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