The Executor's First 30 Days

If you have just lost someone and discovered you are their executor, here is the most important sentence in this factsheet: almost nothing has to happen on day one. Grief makes everything feel urgent. In reality, the first month has a handful of genuine deadlines, a longer list of sensible tasks, and a small number of traps. This guide takes them week by week. For the full picture of the role itself, duties, liability and how to protect yourself, read our Being an Executor factsheet alongside this one.

Week 1: the essentials

The medical certificate. Before the death can be registered, the cause of death must be confirmed. In England and Wales, deaths are reviewed either by a medical examiner (an independent senior doctor who scrutinises the cause of death) or, where the death was unexpected or unexplained, referred to the coroner. The hospital, GP surgery or care provider handles this. If the coroner is involved, registration simply waits.

Register the death. Once the registrar has the medical certificate, the death should be registered within 5 days of the cause being confirmed. Book an appointment at the register office (usually in the district where the person died) and take what details you can find about the person.

Buy certified copies of the death certificate. Banks and insurers almost always want certified copies, not photocopies. Copies cost around £12.50 each (as at June 2026) and are cheapest at registration. Five to ten copies is a sensible starting point; running out later means delays.

Use Tell Us Once. The registrar will offer the Tell Us Once service, which notifies most government bodies, HMRC, DWP, the Passport Office, DVLA, the local council, in a single step. Say yes: it saves hours of letters.

Secure the property. If the person lived alone: collect keys, cancel deliveries, move obvious valuables to safekeeping, and ask a neighbour to keep an eye out. Do not start clearing the house; everything in it is part of the estate.

Locate the Will. Find the original Will (not a photocopy), at home, with a solicitor or Will-writing firm, or in professional storage. It confirms who the executors are and may contain funeral wishes, which is why it should be found before the funeral, not after. If there is no Will, the intestacy rules decide who inherits and who administers, see our Intestacy: Who Inherits Without a Will factsheet.

The funeral can also be arranged this week; check the Will and any prepaid plan first. Funeral costs are payable from the estate.

Weeks 2–3: notify, list, protect

With the funeral past, the steady work begins, none of it a race.

Notify the financial world. Write to or call each bank, building society, insurer, pension provider, investment platform and utility company. Banks will freeze sole accounts until you produce a Grant of Probate (the court document proving an executor's authority); joint accounts usually pass to the survivor and stay open. The Death Notification Service lets you tell several banks at once.

Redirect the post. A Royal Mail redirection to your address is one of the most useful early steps: statements, dividend notices, bills and reminders will reveal assets and debts you did not know existed, and it reduces burglary risk at an empty property.

Check the property insurance. Most home insurance policies restrict or void cover once a property is unoccupied (typically after 30 or 60 days). Tell the insurer the position and ask for unoccupied-property cover. An uninsured empty house is one of the biggest financial risks in any estate.

Build the asset and liability list. Start a schedule of everything owned and owed at the date of death: property, accounts, savings, investments, premium bonds, pensions, life policies, vehicles, valuables, digital assets, and on the other side, mortgage, loans, credit cards, utilities. Valuations will be needed for probate and any Inheritance Tax reporting, so ask each institution for a balance "as at the date of death."

Keep your own money out of it. Do not pay the estate's bills from your own pocket unless something genuinely cannot wait, and when you do, keep every receipt. Reasonable expenses are refundable from the estate, but only if you can evidence them. Keep estate money rigidly separate from your own.

Week 4: take stock and decide

By the end of the month you should know roughly what the estate contains. Three assessments:

Is probate needed? Not every estate needs a Grant. If everything was jointly owned and passes to a survivor, or the estate is small (banks have their own thresholds for releasing funds against a death certificate), you may not need one. If there is property or significant sole-name accounts, you almost certainly do. The probate application fee is £300 for estates over £5,000 (as at June 2026).

Does Inheritance Tax reporting apply? Many estates qualify as excepted estates (simple or small enough that no full IHT account is needed), with the figures declared within the probate application. Larger or more complex estates must submit a full IHT400 (HMRC's detailed Inheritance Tax account), and any IHT due must start being paid by the end of the sixth month after the month of death, after which interest runs. Six months sounds generous until you are chasing valuations in month five.

Do you want professional help? Be honest about the estate's complexity and your own capacity. A house to sell, an IHT400, foreign assets, a trust in the Will, family tension, any of these is a good reason not to go it alone. Squiggle can support you as much or as little as you want: we arrange the Grant of Probate. Our Estate Administration factsheet explains the full process ahead; if the role feels like too much altogether, our Professional Executors factsheet covers the alternatives.

You do not have to do all of this yourself

Squiggle can take on as much or as little of the estate administration as you wish, from arranging the Grant of Probate to handling everything end to end, while you focus on your family. Book a call with a consultant or call 01233 659 796.

What NOT to do

Do not distribute anything early. Not "just a few thousand to tide your sister over," not the contents of the house. Debts, taxes and claims come first, and executors are personally liable if they pay out and the estate cannot later meet a valid debt or claim.

Do not ignore the six-month claims window. Certain people, a spouse, children, a cohabiting partner, anyone financially maintained by the deceased, can claim against the estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, and have six months from the Grant of Probate to do so. That is why careful executors wait at least six months after the Grant before distributing the residue: distribute early and a successful claimant could leave you paying out of your own pocket.

Do not let the house be emptied informally. "Mum promised me the clock" is how estate disputes begin. Personal possessions are estate assets until the Will says otherwise.

Do not guess on valuations or tax. Understating values to HMRC, even innocently, causes serious problems later.

Do not destroy paperwork. Keep everything, statements, bills, letters, receipts, until the estate is fully wound up and well beyond.

A worked example

Imagine Sarah, executor for her mother. Week 1: the GP refers the paperwork to the medical examiner, Sarah registers the death, buys eight death certificates, uses Tell Us Once, secures the bungalow and finds the Will in a bedroom drawer. Weeks 2–3: she notifies the banks and pension provider, redirects the post, and calls the home insurer, who switches the policy to unoccupied cover. The redirected post turns up a forgotten savings account and a credit card debt. Week 4: with the bungalow in her mother's sole name, probate is clearly needed; the estate looks excepted, but Sarah asks Squiggle to confirm the IHT position and arrange the Grant while she manages the house. Nothing rushed, nothing missed, nothing paid out to anyone. This is a hypothetical example for illustration only.

Common mistakes

Treating everything as a day-one emergency. The genuine early deadlines are few: registration, the funeral, securing the property. Exhausting yourself in week one helps nobody.

Forgetting the property insurance. Unoccupied-property restrictions catch out more executors than almost anything else. Call the insurer in the first fortnight.

Paying estate expenses from your own account without records. Keep receipts for everything, and stop paying personally as soon as the bank can settle bills directly.

Letting family pressure force early distributions. The six-month window after the Grant exists for a reason. A calm explanation now beats personal liability later.

Ordering too few death certificates. Institutions want originals, often simultaneously. Order spares at registration.

Assuming you must do it all yourself. You can delegate the administration while remaining the executor; most people do, once they see what is involved.

Worried a Will does not provide for you, or facing a dispute?

Check whether you may have a claim in two minutes, free. Try the Claim Checker →

Questions? Book a free call

Pick a time that suits you and your local Squiggle consultant will call you. No charge, no obligation. Book a call or call 01233 659 796.

Talk to Squiggle: 01233 659 796 | hello@squiggleconsult.co.uk | www.squiggleconsult.co.uk | Book a free call: meet.squiggleconsult.co.uk

This factsheet is general information for England and Wales, not legal, tax or financial advice. Last reviewed: June 2026.