Executor of a will: duties, responsibilities and liability

Being named as the executor of someone’s will is a mark of trust. The person who wrote the will believed you were the right person to carry out their final wishes. Alongside that responsibility comes a significant legal duty – one that can last months, sometimes more than a year, and that carries real personal liability if things go wrong.

This guide explains what an executor is, your duties step by step, the personal liabilities you take on (including a tax obligation many guides miss), how the role works across Scotland and Northern Ireland, and when it makes sense to bring in a solicitor. Whether you have just found out you have been named or you are weighing up the role before agreeing to it, you will find what you need here. If you are writing a will and deciding who to appoint, our guide on how to write a will covers choosing an executor.

What is an executor?

An executor is the person appointed in a will to administer the deceased’s estate – their money, property, and possessions – and to carry out the instructions set out in the will. The role is created at the moment the will is signed and takes effect on the death of the person who made it.

The legal authority for executors in England and Wales comes primarily from the Administration of Estates Act 1925. The Act sets out the powers, duties, and order of priority for personal representatives, the umbrella term for both executors (appointed by a will) and administrators (appointed where there is no will or no acting executor).

Anyone aged 18 or over can be an executor. There is no requirement to be a lawyer or financial professional. You can be both an executor and a beneficiary at the same time, and many wills name a spouse or adult child in both roles. Being named as executor does not automatically mean you inherit anything; that depends on what the will says separately.

A will can name up to four executors, though most name one or two. Where several are named, up to four can act together on the probate application.

Your duties as executor: step by step

The administration of an estate follows a broadly sequential process. Each step builds on the last, and some tasks must be completed before others can begin.

1. Register the death and obtain death certificates

Before anything else can happen, the death must be registered. In England and Wales, registration must take place within five days with the local register office. You will need several certified copies of the death certificate – banks, pension providers, HMRC, and the Land Registry will each require one. Order at least ten copies at the point of registration; obtaining further copies later is slower and more expensive.

2. Locate the original will and notify beneficiaries

You will need the original, signed will, not a photocopy. It may be held at home, with a solicitor, at a bank, or stored with the Probate Service. If you cannot locate it, our guide on how to find a will covers the Probate Registry standing search, the National Will Register, and other formal routes. Once you have it, make copies for yourself, any co-executors, and all beneficiaries, and tell beneficiaries that they have been named.

3. Arrange the funeral

Executors have legal responsibility for the funeral arrangements, though in practice this is almost always handled by the family. Funeral costs are paid from the estate and take priority over most other debts, so keep all receipts. Check whether the deceased held a pre-paid funeral plan – if so, contact the plan provider rather than a funeral director, as the plan is tied to a nominated firm.

4. Value the estate

You must produce an accurate valuation of everything the deceased owned at the date of death – property, bank accounts, investments, pensions, vehicles, personal possessions – minus any outstanding debts such as mortgages, loans, and credit card balances. Contact every financial institution individually and ask for the balance as at the date of death. For property, an estate agent’s written market appraisal is usually sufficient unless the estate is complex or HMRC is likely to challenge the figure. Full guidance is available on gov.uk – Valuing the estate of someone who died.

5. Deal with inheritance tax

If the estate’s net value exceeds the inheritance tax threshold (currently £325,000, the nil-rate band, or more if the residence nil-rate band or spousal exemptions apply), inheritance tax is due. The deadline for payment is six months from the end of the month in which the person died, and interest accrues after that. You must report the estate’s value to HMRC before probate can be granted. See our guide to the nil-rate band and how thresholds work, HMRC inheritance tax guidance, and our inheritance tax overview for detail.

6. Apply for probate (if required)

Once you have valued the estate and dealt with any inheritance tax reporting, you can apply for a grant of probate. This is the legal document that confirms your authority to access and distribute the estate. Most assets above modest thresholds cannot be released without it. Our step-by-step guide to applying for probate covers the full application process, forms, and fees.

7. Settle debts and notify creditors

Before distributing anything to beneficiaries, you must pay all outstanding debts. To protect yourself from unknown creditors, place a deceased estates notice in The Gazette (the official UK public record) and a local newspaper. This starts a window of two months and one day during which creditors can come forward. After that period, you are protected from claims you could not reasonably have known about, provided you also made a reasonable search (The Gazette – creditor notices guidance).

8. Distribute the estate to beneficiaries

Once debts, taxes, and expenses have been paid, you distribute what remains to the beneficiaries in accordance with the will. Specific gifts (a named item, a fixed sum) are dealt with first; the residue (what is left) passes to the residuary beneficiaries.

9. Keep full accounts and finalise tax

Throughout the administration, keep a detailed record of every transaction – every asset collected, every debt paid, every distribution made. At the end, produce a set of estate accounts for the beneficiaries showing how the estate was valued and dealt with. Before you make the final distribution, make sure any income tax or capital gains tax arising during the administration period has been settled with HMRC (covered in the liability section below). This protects you and gives the people who have inherited a clear picture.

Practical timeline

Every estate is different, and the figures below are typical rather than guaranteed. Probate processing times in particular vary; see our guide to how long probate takes for current estimates.

Personal liability: what you are responsible for

As executor, you take on personal legal liability for the proper administration of the estate. If you get it wrong, you can be held personally responsible, and in some cases pay out of your own pocket. This is the part of the role that catches people out.

Devastavit and your statutory duties

The legal concept covering executor liability is devastavit, Latin for “he has wasted”, which describes the misapplication or squandering of estate assets. Examples that have given rise to devastavit claims include:

• Selling estate property for less than its market value
• Paying the wrong debts, or paying them in the wrong order
• Distributing assets to beneficiaries before settling all debts and taxes
• Failing to collect all estate assets
• Investing estate funds inappropriately

Section 25 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 sets out your core statutory duties as personal representative: to collect and administer the estate, to provide an inventory and account of the estate when required to by the court, and to deliver up the grant when called upon. Beneficiaries can bring a devastavit claim against you for up to 12 years from the date of the breach under section 22 of the Limitation Act 1980; ordinary creditors generally have up to six years.

The Gazette notice and distributing too early

If a creditor comes forward after you have distributed the estate, and you did not place a deceased estates notice in The Gazette, you may have to pay that creditor yourself. Placing the statutory notice under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925, and waiting the two months and one day, protects you from claims by creditors you could not reasonably have traced. It does not protect you against claims you knew or ought to have known about. For the same reason, distributing before the executor’s year is up carries a risk: a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 can be brought within six months of the grant, and if you have already paid everything out you may struggle to recover it. If a beneficiary or family member is considering challenging the will, our guide on contesting a will explains the grounds, time limits, and process.

Estate income tax: the obligation many executors miss

Inheritance tax is not the only tax an executor deals with. During the administration period – the time between the death and the date the estate is fully wound up – the estate’s assets may earn income: interest on savings, dividends on shares, or rent on a let property. The executor is responsible for reporting and paying tax on that income. This is separate from inheritance tax and is regularly missed by generic guides.

The estate has no personal allowance, so income is taxed from the first pound (broadly 20% on savings and rental income and 8.75% on dividends, at current rates). How you report it depends on the size of the estate and the amounts involved, set out in gov.uk – Reporting the estate’s income:

• No reporting needed if the estate’s total income is £500 or less in a tax year. From 6 April 2024 this £500 limit applies to each tax year of the administration period and cannot be carried over. If income exceeds £500, all of it is reportable and the £500 is not a deductible allowance.
• Informal arrangement (report by letter, no formal return) is available if the estate was worth under £2.5 million at death, the total income tax and capital gains tax due across the whole administration period is under £10,000, and you did not sell more than £500,000 of assets in any single tax year.
• Formal Trust and Estate Tax Return (SA900) is required where the estate is too large or complex for the informal route. You must register the estate with HMRC by 5 October after the tax year you are reporting, and file by the standard Self Assessment deadlines.

There may also be capital gains tax if assets are sold during administration for more than their date-of-death value, above the estate’s annual exempt amount. Settle all of this before you make the final distribution, because once the money is gone, the liability stays with you.

Investment duties under the Trustee Act 2000

If the estate holds investments – a share portfolio, or assets the will places in an ongoing trust – and you are holding them for any length of time, you are acting as a trustee and the Trustee Act 2000 applies. Section 1 imposes a statutory duty of care: you must exercise the care and skill that is reasonable in the circumstances, with a higher standard expected of a professional. Section 4 requires you to apply the “standard investment criteria”: the suitability of any investment for the estate or trust, and the need to diversify holdings so far as appropriate. You must review the investments from time to time. Where the will sets up a trust that will run for years, for example for young children, take advice on your ongoing obligations; the prudent-investor standard is real and enforceable.

For complex estates – significant inheritance tax, business assets, overseas property, ongoing trusts, or any dispute about the will – executor insurance is worth considering, and taking professional advice before key decisions can protect you from personal exposure.

The executor’s year

There is no hard deadline for completing estate administration, but there is an important protection known as the executor’s year.

Under section 44 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925, beneficiaries cannot compel an executor to distribute the estate within the first 12 months from the date of death. This gives executors time to locate assets, settle debts, pay tax, and deal with complications before distribution, without being pressured by beneficiaries who want their inheritance quickly.

This does not mean you must wait 12 months. Many straightforward estates are administered and distributed within six to nine months. The executor’s year is a protection, not a requirement. Once the year has passed, beneficiaries can begin to press for distribution, and if there is unreasonable delay they may apply to the court.

In practice, the limiting factor is usually the probate timeline rather than the executor’s willingness to act. For current estimates of how long probate takes, see our guide to probate timelines.

Can you refuse or step down?

Yes. No one can be forced to act as an executor. If you do not want the role, you have two main options.

Renunciation is the formal process of permanently giving up your right to act. You complete Form PA15 (available from gov.uk) and submit it to the Probate Registry. Once you have renounced, you cannot change your mind and re-engage with the estate later.

Power reserved is a softer option where multiple executors are named. You step back from the current application while keeping the right to step in later if needed, for example if the lead executor becomes unable to continue. This is done by notifying the lead applicant in writing rather than filing a form.

There is one important limitation. If you have already started acting as executor – opening correspondence with banks, accessing accounts, or taking control of assets – you may have “intermeddled” in the estate. At that point, renunciation is no longer available, because the courts have found that intermeddling, even inadvertently, can bind you to the role. If you have any doubts, take legal advice before taking any action.

What if an executor dies?

The position depends on the timing:

• Before the person who made the will dies: any substitute or replacement executor named in the will steps in. If none is named and there are no other executors, the estate is dealt with as though no executor was appointed, and someone applies for letters of administration with the will annexed.
• One of several executors dies during administration: the surviving executors simply carry on. No fresh appointment is needed.
• A sole executor dies after taking probate but before finishing: the “chain of representation” under section 7 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 can apply. The executor of the deceased executor’s own estate becomes executor of the original estate too. The chain only continues through proving executors and breaks if anyone in it dies without leaving a proving executor.
• The chain breaks, or all executors have died or renounced: the court appoints an administrator de bonis non (“of goods not yet administered”) to complete the job, usually a beneficiary, who receives a fresh grant.

Where there was never any acting executor – none named, or all renounced – administration passes to a beneficiary under letters of administration with the will annexed. Where there is no valid will at all, the estate passes under the intestacy rules and the closest relative applies to administer it.

Can you be paid?

A lay executor – a family member or friend acting without professional expertise – has no automatic right to payment for their time. Unless the will contains a specific charging clause authorising payment, a lay executor is expected to administer the estate for free. They can recover reasonable out-of-pocket expenses from the estate: travel costs, phone calls, postage, probate application fees.

A professional executor – a solicitor, bank, or trust company – can charge for their time, but only if the will contains a charging clause authorising it. Sections 28 and 29 of the Trustee Act 2000 govern when professional executors and trustees can charge fees. In the absence of a charging clause, a professional named as executor has very limited grounds to recover fees.

If you are a professional who has been named as executor without a charging clause, take advice before assuming you can recover costs.

Multiple executors

When two or more executors are named, they must act jointly. Major decisions – selling property, settling debts, distributing assets – require agreement between all acting executors. No single executor can unilaterally bind the estate on significant matters.

Up to four executors can be named on the probate application. If the will names more than four, the others can apply later if the acting executors cannot continue. Where not all named executors wish to apply immediately, those stepping back can have “power reserved”, preserving their right to act later without formally renouncing.

If executors disagree on how to administer the estate, the situation can become complex and, in serious cases, may require a court application – including, as a last resort, removal of an executor under section 50 of the Administration of Justice Act 1985. Where there is genuine risk of conflict, professional advice at the outset is worthwhile.

One executor can also formally appoint someone else to apply for probate on their behalf using Form PA11 (available from gov.uk).

Lay executor vs professional executor

Scotland: confirmors and confirmation

Scotland has a separate legal system, and the terminology and process differ from England and Wales. The person who administers a deceased person’s estate in Scotland is an executor, and the document giving them authority is called confirmation – the Scottish equivalent of a grant of probate. Confirmation is granted by the local Sheriff Court (or, in the Edinburgh area, the Commissary Office).

Scottish law distinguishes two kinds of executor:

• Executor-nominate – named in the will, broadly equivalent to an executor in England and Wales.
• Executor-dative – appointed by the Sheriff Court where there is no will, or where the will names no executor, broadly equivalent to an administrator.

To obtain confirmation, the executor prepares an inventory of the estate on Form C1 and submits it to the Sheriff Court, along with any inheritance tax account. The inheritance tax rules are UK-wide, so the same six-month payment deadline and the same nil-rate band apply. A distinctive feature of Scots law is legal rights: a surviving spouse, civil partner, and children are entitled to a fixed share of the deceased’s net moveable estate (money, savings, investments and possessions, but not land or buildings) regardless of what the will says, so they cannot be completely disinherited. Because the rules are technical, an executor dealing with a Scottish estate should take advice from a Scottish solicitor.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland broadly follows the same principles as England and Wales – executors, grants of probate, and similar duties – but it has its own court system and procedures. Probate applications are made to the Probate Office at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast (with a district registry in Londonderry), rather than to HM Courts and Tribunals Service in England and Wales. The application forms are specific to Northern Ireland, and the inheritance tax rules are UK-wide, so the same thresholds and deadlines apply.

One practical point catches executors of cross-border estates. A grant of probate issued in England and Wales does not by itself give authority over assets situated in Northern Ireland; those assets generally need a separate grant resealed or issued in Northern Ireland. The reverse applies too. Where an estate holds assets on both sides of the Irish Sea, take advice from a solicitor qualified in Northern Ireland.

When should you use a solicitor?

The law does not require you to use a solicitor to administer an estate. For a straightforward estate – a modest amount of assets, a clear will, no inheritance tax, and no disputes – a lay executor can handle everything without professional help.

Certain situations make professional involvement sensible:

• Inheritance tax is due – IHT accounts are detailed documents with long-term consequences if filed incorrectly, and interest runs on late payment
• There is income or capital gains tax during administration – if the estate cannot use the informal HMRC route, a Trust and Estate Tax Return is involved
• The estate includes a business – business relief calculations are complex and mistakes are costly; see what happens to a business when someone dies for the full picture on sole traders, limited companies, and partnerships
• The will creates an ongoing trust – for young children, for example, where you take on continuing trustee and investment duties
• Property is held overseas, or across the UK’s separate jurisdictions – different legal systems may mean local advice and separate grants
• The will is being challenged – if someone intends to contest the will or make a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, do not proceed without advice
• There is no will – where someone dies intestate, an administrator rather than an executor is appointed; see our guide to intestacy rules
• You feel overwhelmed – administering an estate takes time, paperwork, and persistence, and there is no shame in getting help

A solicitor can take on the full administration or advise on specific steps only. Make sure any professional you instruct quotes fees clearly upfront, and check whether the will itself contains a charging clause if a professional executor is already named.

Key sources

• Administration of Estates Act 1925 – the primary legislation governing executors in England and Wales (sections 7, 25, 44 cited above)
• Trustee Act 1925, section 27 – statutory creditor notice
• Trustee Act 2000 – duty of care (s.1), standard investment criteria (s.4), professional charging (ss.28–29)
• Limitation Act 1980, section 22 – time limits for claims against an estate
• gov.uk – Dealing with the estate of someone who’s died
• gov.uk – Applying for probate – official guidance including Form PA15 (renunciation) and Form PA11 (power of attorney)
• gov.uk – Valuing the estate of someone who died
• gov.uk – Reporting the estate’s income to HMRC
• HMRC – Inheritance Tax
• The Gazette – placing a deceased estates notice

This guide covers the law in England and Wales unless stated otherwise, with separate sections on Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. For complex estates, speak to a solicitor.