Settling and estate?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Vermont
Our beloved aunt passed away just over a year ago leaving 4 heirs. My husband is the executor of her estate and we hired a lawyer within the first week as was her wish. This lawyer would not even allow my husband access to the checkbook to pay any of the bills that have come due (my husband was furious at that one as he is a stickler for paying bills on time). The real estate property sold late in November 2009 and other than that, this "wonderful" lawyer has done nada to get this estate settled! I understand that there is a process in this state whereby you must notify creditors (we've done that) and they are still waiting for their money...and as far as we know from the information we have gleaned from begging the lawyer to return our calls, she has done the court legwork that was necessary. Are we being unreasonable in our thinking that a year is a bit much to make these creditors wait for their money? We are getting past due notices weekly. The lawyer has not paid anyone. If we are at the point where we should be thinking about another lawyer, how do we do that? We are in a very small town and anyway, how do you pick a lawyer? Our beloved aunt chose this one and we thought that we were doing the right thing, but for a while now have been wondering if this lawyer is maybe not doing too much for us. Your suggestions and opinions are very much appreciated.

How much money was in the account at the time she died? Was the account titled in her name only or was it a joint account or an account with a designated beneficiary? Ask the attorney (or a different one) whether the bills should be paid from what is now the estate account. Has the attorney notified your husband about any pending/upcoming probate court hearings?

Settling estate

Thank you for taking time to answer my questions. An estate account was setup with my husband as executor and the attorney co-signers (attorney has custody of the checkbook). According to the attorney, the estate has cleared State probate as well as something to do with state taxes. We are just very concerned that nothing is being paid and there is certainly more than enough money in that account to pay the creditors who we feel should have been paid a long time ago. My husband and I have been paying the insurances and things like that to keep that sort of thing current just in case something should happen that the current property would need to be covered. It just seems that with probate completed a while ago, this estate should be moving along by now. More than a year seems like such a long time to be in limbo with things. Is it reasonable to ask another attorney in town (not associated with the same law firm of course) to look into this for us? I would hate for there to be some sort of conflict of interest, but we are really getting disturbed at the length of time this is taking to settle and there are also other people to consider here as well.