An executor is the person a will appoints to wind up everything its maker leaves behind: to gather in the estate, settle what it owes, and pass what remains to the people named in the will. The law calls this administering the estate. In practice it is a project that lasts the better part of a year, done by someone who is usually grieving at the same time.
The job, in order
- Register the death (within five days in England and Wales) and obtain several copies of the death certificate; every institution will want one
- Locate the original will and check it is the latest version; arrange the funeral, which as executor is legally your call, guided by any wishes the person recorded
- Secure the estate: lock the property, tell the insurer it is empty, redirect post, take valuables somewhere safe
- Value everything: property, accounts, investments, possessions, pensions and debts, at date-of-death values, and report to HMRC
- Pay any inheritance tax due (at least the first instalment) and apply for the grant of probate, the court document proving your authority
- Collect in the assets: close accounts, sell or transfer property and investments
- Settle debts, bills, tax and the funeral account, in the legal order of priority
- Distribute what remains according to the will, and keep estate accounts every beneficiary can inspect
The part nobody mentions: personal liability
Executors are personally liable for mistakes. Distribute the estate and then discover an unpaid debt, an unknown child, or a missed tax bill, and the executor can be paying out of their own pocket. The protections are procedural and they work: advertise for creditors under section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 and wait two months before distributing; wait six months from the grant before distributing if a claim against the estate is conceivable; take professional advice, paid for by the estate, wherever the ground feels uncertain.
How long it takes and what it pays
A straightforward estate typically takes six months to a year; probate alone has its own timetable. The role itself is unpaid unless the will says otherwise, though executors reclaim reasonable expenses. Professional executors charge; family executors serve. Most estates in England and Wales are administered by family members doing this for the first time.
Do you have to accept?
No. An executor who has not started the work can renounce entirely, or have "power reserved", stepping back while other executors act, with the option to join later. What an executor cannot do is start administering and then walk away: once you have intermeddled in the estate, you are generally in until the end.
If you are writing a will: make the job survivable
Everything above gets easier or harder depending on decisions the will-maker took years earlier. Choose executors suited to the work and name substitutes. Keep an asset list with your will so nothing has to be hunted. Store the will where it can be found and register it. Every Willful will comes with those pieces built in: solicitor review, National Will Register registration, an encrypted vault for the documents your executor will need, and a probate pack assembled for the day it is finally used.