Being Named an Executor: What You Take On

You are not obliged to accept, and declining is straightforward provided you have not begun acting.

The main duties

Locating the will and obtaining the legal authority to administer the estate, which usually involves an application to a probate registry or equivalent.

Identifying and valuing all assets and liabilities at the date of death.

Dealing with tax: submitting returns, paying any inheritance or estate tax due, and settling the deceased's outstanding income tax.

Paying debts, then distributing the remainder to beneficiaries in accordance with the will.

Keeping full accounts of everything, which beneficiaries are generally entitled to see.

Personal liability

This is the aspect most often underestimated. Executors can be held personally liable for losses caused by errors — distributing before debts are settled, missing a creditor, underpaying tax, or mismanaging assets.

Formal notices to creditors, published in the prescribed manner, provide protection against unknown claims in many systems. Not publishing them leaves you exposed.

Distributing too early is a common error. Waiting until claim periods have expired protects you.

The time involved

A straightforward estate commonly takes six to twelve months. Complex ones — business interests, foreign assets, disputes, property that is slow to sell — take considerably longer.

The administrative burden is substantial: correspondence with banks, insurers, pension providers, utilities, tax authorities and beneficiaries, much of it requiring original documents.

Whether to use a solicitor

Simple estates can be administered personally, and many are.

Professional help is worth considering where there is inheritance tax to pay, business or agricultural assets, foreign property, a possible claim against the estate, a disputed or unclear will, or beneficiaries who are minors or lack capacity.

Professional fees are paid from the estate rather than personally. Compare a fixed fee against a percentage of the estate, since percentage charging on a substantial estate can be very expensive for the same work.

Managing beneficiaries

Communicate regularly even when there is nothing to report. Most executor disputes arise from silence rather than from decisions.

Be transparent about timescales and about why things take as long as they do. Beneficiaries frequently expect a matter of weeks.

Where you are both executor and beneficiary, be scrupulous about documenting decisions, since conflicts of interest attract scrutiny.

If you do not want the role

Renounce formally before taking any steps in the administration. Once you have begun acting it becomes considerably harder to withdraw.

You can also reserve power where there are co-executors, allowing others to act while preserving your ability to step in later.