What do executors do?

What is an executor, and where does their authority come from?

An executor is the person a will names to carry it out. Their authority comes from the will itself, and it begins at the moment of death: an executor can take steps to protect the estate before any grant is issued, and the grant of probate later confirms what the will already gave them, which is the position under sections 1, 2(1) and 21 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 (checked 20 September 2026). That is the difference between an executor and an administrator, who is appointed where there is no will and has no power until the letters of administration are granted.

A will can name one executor or several, up to four can take the grant at once, and it can name substitutes in case the first choice has died or will not act, the limit being section 114(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, which says probate or administration shall not be granted to more than four persons in respect of the same part of an estate (checked 20 September 2026). Executors do not have to be lawyers or family. A spouse, an adult child, a friend and a professional are all common. Whoever is named is not obliged to accept. Someone who has not started dealing with the estate can renounce, or have power reserved so that the others proceed without them. Once they have started, they are in for the duration. Renouncing closes after the first act of dealing with the estate, anyone interested can then cite them to take the grant under rule 47(3) of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 once six months have passed since the death, and the only way out is a court order removing them under section 50 of the Administration of Justice Act 1985. Arranging the funeral and steps taken to keep the estate safe do not start that clock. Selling anything, paying debts from estate money or collecting in what is owed does. Decide before you touch the assets, not after.

Executor sets out the definition in short form. This guide is about the work.

What are an executor's duties in the first few weeks?

Find the will. Check with the deceased's papers, their bank, any firm that drafted it, and the national will register. Read it, and note who the executors and beneficiaries are and whether it leaves specific items to specific people. Register the death, and order enough certified copies of the certificate to send several at once. Arrange the funeral, which a bank may pay from the deceased's account on sight of the invoice, and keep the receipt as an estate expense.

Secure the property. If a house is now empty, the executors are responsible for it from the date of death: insurance, locks, heating in winter, and someone checking it. A household policy may stop covering an unoccupied property after a set period, so the insurer needs to be told early. There is no standard period: neither the Association of British Insurers nor the Financial Conduct Authority publishes one, and policies differ, so the figure that matters is the one in the policy itself. Redirect the post. Tell the utilities, the council and the DVLA. The government's Tell Us Once service covers many of the public bodies in one go.

Then start the list. Everything the person owned, everything they owed, and who holds each. This list becomes the estate, and every later figure depends on it.

What does an executor do to get the grant of probate?

Value the estate at the date of death. That means writing to every bank, building society, pension scheme, insurer and investment platform with a certified copy of the death certificate, asking for the date-of-death balance and for the institution's own requirements to release it. The house needs a written valuation. Debts, including the mortgage, credit cards, utilities and the funeral, are listed alongside.

Work out the inheritance tax position. Many estates are excepted and report their values on the probate application itself; others need a full account on form IHT400 to HMRC first, and any tax paid or arranged before the application can go in. For deaths on or after 1 January 2022 the excepted estate categories are set by the Inheritance Tax (Delivery of Accounts) (Excepted Estates) Regulations 2004 as amended by SI 2021/1167: a low value estate, an exempt estate where the gross value does not exceed 3,000,000 pounds and the net chargeable value after spouse and charity exemptions is within the nil rate band, and a category for a person who died domiciled outside the United Kingdom. Lifetime gifts counted as specified transfers are capped at 250,000 pounds (checked 20 September 2026). Executors sign the account, and they are responsible for its accuracy. Where the deceased was the second of a married couple to die, the first spouse's unused allowances have to be claimed with evidence from the first death.

Apply. The application is made online in most cases, with the original will sent by post, a statement of truth from every executor applying, and the application fee set by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. How long does probate take sets out what happens between submission and the grant. Executors who would rather not make the application themselves can instruct a firm that holds a probate licence to make it for them.

What does an executor do with the house and the other assets?

Once the grant is in, the executors collect. Each bank closes the account against a sealed copy of the grant and pays the balance into an account in the executors' names for the estate. Shares are sold or transferred. Pension and policy payments that sit outside the estate are dealt with by the trustees on their own forms, and the executors only need to know they happened.

The house is the executors' decision, within the terms of the will. If the will leaves it to a named person, the executors pass it to them by an assent on form AS1 and HM Land Registry registers the beneficiary. If it is to be sold and the proceeds shared, the executors sell it as personal representatives, sign the transfer in that capacity and produce the grant as their authority. The executors owe a duty to get the best price reasonably obtainable, which is why a written valuation and a proper marketing period protect them. Selling a parent's house in probate covers the practicalities: marketing before the grant, exchange timed to it, and the tax on the sale.

Executors also decide what to do with the contents. Items left to named people go to them. The rest is valued if worth anything, sold or distributed, and only then cleared. A will that leaves the contents to one person and the house to another needs care here.

What are an executor's duties to creditors and beneficiaries?

Debts come before gifts. An executor who pays beneficiaries and then finds a creditor is personally liable for the shortfall. The protection is procedural: advertise for claims under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925, in the London Gazette and, where the estate includes land, in a newspaper circulating in the district where the land is, allow the notice period to run, and only then distribute. The notice must give claimants not less than two months, counted from the last notice placed. What that buys is protection for the executor personally against a claim they had no notice of; it does not extinguish the debt, and the creditor can still follow the money into the hands of the beneficiaries who received it (checked 19 September 2026). Where an estate may not cover its debts, they must be paid in a strict statutory order, and the executors must stop and take advice before paying anyone.

Beneficiaries are owed honesty and accounts. The executors are not obliged to give a running commentary, but they must act in the beneficiaries' interests, must not profit from the estate beyond what the will allows, and must produce estate accounts at the end showing everything received, everything paid, and each share. Residuary beneficiaries, who take what is left, are entitled to see and approve those accounts before the final distribution. The table sets out the main duties, the risk behind each and what an executor does to meet it.

Can an executor be paid, and can they step down?

A lay executor is not paid for their time unless the will says so, but every expense properly incurred in administering the estate is repaid from it: certified copies, valuation fees, travel to the property, postage, the probate application fee. Keep every receipt. A professional executor, such as a firm named in the will, charges under a charging clause in the will, and beneficiaries are entitled to see the basis of the charge. Section 28 of the Trustee Act 2000 lets a professional charge under a clause in the will even for work a lay executor could have done. Without such a clause, section 29 gives a professional a right to reasonable remuneration only where they are not acting alone and every other personal representative agrees in writing, which section 35 applies to personal representatives; a sole professional executor with no charging clause therefore has no statutory right to charge (checked 20 September 2026).

Stepping down is easy before the executor has started and hard afterwards. An executor who has done nothing beyond arranging the funeral can renounce by signing a form of renunciation lodged with the application. One who wants to remain named but not act for now can have power reserved, so that the other executors take the grant and they can join later if needed. Once an executor has intermeddled, by collecting assets or holding themselves out as executor, renunciation is no longer available and removal needs a court order. Section 28 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 is what puts a price on getting this wrong: a person who takes estate assets without authority is charged as executor in his own wrong to the extent of what they received (checked 20 September 2026). Someone who does not want the job should say so at the start.

The alternative to stepping down is delegating. Executors cannot hand their responsibility to someone else, but they can instruct a firm that holds a probate licence to do the work under their direction. The executors remain the executors and sign what needs signing. How to get a grant of probate explains what the application involves. Where the part they want help with is the house, we act on the sale or register the assent once the grant is in hand.

What can go wrong for an executor personally?

The liability is real and it is personal. An executor who distributes and is then met with a debt, a tax bill or a claim the estate can no longer pay makes up the difference from their own pocket. Section 61 of the Trustee Act 1925, which reaches personal representatives through section 68(17), lets the court relieve a trustee wholly or partly from personal liability, but only where three things are satisfied: that they acted honestly, that they acted reasonably, and that they ought fairly to be excused for the breach and for not having obtained the directions of the court. Even then the court may relieve, not must (checked 20 September 2026). So the protection is discretionary, it can be partial, and an executor who skipped the creditor notices or paid out in month three will struggle on the second and third limbs.

Disputes are the other exposure. Beneficiaries who believe the house was sold too cheaply, or that an executor favoured themselves, can apply to the court for an account or for the executor's removal, and the executor may pay the costs. Co-executors who cannot agree stall the estate for everyone. The cures are dull and effective: written valuations, recorded decisions, a reserve held back, accounts that add up, and independent advice on anything the will leaves unclear.