After Jack Rowland died aged 70 from Covid-19 on March 31, his brother Robert has been bombarded by the energy company Eon and a Manchester-based debt collection company with payment demands. Robert is the executor of his brother’s will but probate — the official confirmation that a will is legally accepted and the estate’s assets can be distributed — has not yet been granted. Robert (not his real name), from Hertfordshire, says he rang all his brother’s service providers to say that he had been appointed executor and that he would be back in touch when he was granted probate. Eon wrote back to say that it outsourced the management of deceased customers’ debts to its “probate partner” Phillips & Cohen and had passed on

Source: The Times September 11, 2020 23:04 UTC