Acting as an Executor

If you have agreed to act as an Executor for a loved one, and they later pass away, you may find yourself with a lot of work to do, which may seem confusing and unclear. Here at Castle Family Legal, we can act as an Executor in two ways:

Directly: If you have a loved one who is finding it hard to know who to appoint as their Executor when they pass away, we can act for them. They will need to appoint us officially in their Will. This will only suit people in specific circumstances. Please contact us to find out more.
Indirectly: If you have been appointed by a loved one to act as their Executor, and they have now passed away, and you feel that you are unable to manage the role confidently, you can appoint us as your Attorneys to be Executors on your behalf. We can then deal with the estate of your loved one as if we were standing in your shoes. Call us to discuss this option in more detail.

Dealing with an estate after a loved one passes away can be time-consuming, emotionally draining and confusing. Some estates can easily take a year or more to administer, especially if you appoint a company (such as us) to act on your behalf.

For those who are happy to act as Executors independently, here is a checklist of the order in which to deal with the main elements of the role:

EXECUTOR’S CHECKLIST

Assuming that the deceased person has assets, it is likely that a Grant of Probate will be required before the estate can be dealt with. Apply for this to the Probate Registry. You will need to pay a fee that you can claim back from the estate later. You will need to supply a copy of your ID and a certified copy of the death certificate.
Once you have the grant of probate, you can ascertain the assets of the deceased to calculate an approximate value for the estate. You can also calculate any debts or unpaid bills that were left by the deceased person at the date of their death.
You can use these figures to submit an Inheritance Tax Return to HMRC.
Assuming no Inheritance Tax is owed, Executors should then pay of any debts and bills that were outstanding at the date of your loved one’s death.
You can also take out expenses such as funeral costs and the cost of the application for Probate.
The estate and remaining assets can then be given away/divided up/sold and the cash given to the beneficiaries who are nominated by your loved one in their Will.
If any gift can not be given due to the deceased person not owning the gift when they passed away, the Will may still be valid, but that individual gift can not be given.
Any of the deceased’s assets that are left over at the end of the process is known as the Residue of the estate. This should be given away as specified in the deceased person’s Will.
If the deceased person did not leave a Will, their estate should be administered as per the Intestacy Rules. See our resource on these rules here.

Hopefully this checklist will be useful for anyone undertaking the role of an Executor. Remember, if you have any queries or would like to know more about our Executor Services, please get in touch and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.