39The considerable variety of tasks which can be carried out by an executor, ranging from the management of an estate to the protection of non-material interests, including the simple distribution of sums of money or moveable or immoveable property, makes it difficult to identify what is a standard service in respect of executing a will. The task of an executor is, in fact, to carry out the testator s wishes, which may involve management activities, legal acts and a whole range of factual or legal transactions. However, the service of executing a will more generally involves, as the Federal Republic of Germany rightly states, economic activity, since, in the majority of cases, executors value and distribute the testator s estate for the benefit of the recipients of their services and sometimes, especially in connection with the management of the property of minors, they protect and ensure a return on that estate. Conversely, even though economic considerations are naturally not unrelated to a lawyer s activities, the services carried out by a lawyer seek primarily to ensure that a claim of a legal nature succeeds. Those two services do not therefore serve the same purpose.
Source: EUR-Lex, © European Union, 1998-2026. Reuse authorised under Decision 2011/833/EU.