What Does an Executor Do? Executor Duties Checklist for Wales

Being named as someone's executor feels like an honour until you realise it comes with a legal responsibility that can last six to twelve months and, if handled incorrectly, expose you to personal financial liability. Most executors in Wales have never done this before. This guide explains what the job actually involves, in the order it needs to happen.

What an Executor Is Legally Responsible For

An executor is the person named in the will who is given legal authority — once probate is granted — to administer the deceased's estate. This means:

• Collecting and valuing all assets
• Paying all debts and taxes
• Distributing the remainder to the beneficiaries as the will directs
• Keeping accurate records of every financial decision

Until the Grant of Probate is issued, you have the right to protect and secure assets, but you cannot sell, transfer, or distribute them. Doing so before you have legal authority (known as "intermeddling") can make you personally liable for the value of those assets.

Phase 1: The First Week (Days 1–7)

Locate and read the will. Your role begins at the moment of death. Read the will carefully — it may contain specific gifts, funeral wishes, or instructions that affect what you do next.

Arrange and attend the death registration. In Wales, the death must be registered within five days of the medical examiner or coroner clearing the death. You or a family member attends the register office appointment. The registrar will provide death certificates and a Tell Us Once reference number.

Order 8–12 certified copies of the death certificate. Each costs £12.50 (verify current amount). Institutions require original certified copies, not photocopies. Under-ordering creates bottlenecks later.

Complete the Tell Us Once session within 28 days. This notifies HMRC, the DWP, the DVLA, the Passport Office, and local Welsh councils in one session. It does not notify banks, building societies, private pensions, or utilities — you will need to contact those separately.

Secure the property. Lock the house, arrange building insurance if needed, remove perishable items, care for any pets. Do not remove, sell, or distribute any personal possessions yet.

Freeze accounts temporarily. Contact banks and building societies to notify them of the death. Most will freeze sole accounts and require either the Grant of Probate or confirmation of the account balance relative to their probate threshold before releasing funds.

Phase 2: The First Month (Days 7–30)

Build an estate inventory. List every asset — bank accounts (sole and joint), property, investments, pensions, vehicles, personal valuables, business interests — with its value on the date of death. Also list all debts: mortgage, credit cards, utility arrears, care home fees, outstanding personal loans.

Understand which assets bypass probate. Joint bank accounts and property held as joint tenants pass automatically to the surviving owner by right of survivorship — no probate is needed for these. Sole assets, or property held as "tenants in common," require probate before they can be transferred.

Check whether you need probate at all. If the estate consists entirely of joint assets, or if account balances fall below the bank's internal threshold (most high street banks in Wales use £50,000; Principality Building Society uses £15,000), you may be able to administer the estate without a formal grant. Each institution decides based on its own rules.

Assess the Inheritance Tax position. If the total gross estate value is below £325,000 (or up to £650,000 if inheriting unused threshold from a predeceased spouse or civil partner), or if everything passes to a surviving spouse or registered charity, the estate is likely an "excepted estate" and you use HMRC's online checker tool rather than filing a full tax return. If the estate is above these thresholds, you must complete and submit form IHT400 to HMRC before applying for probate.

Pay funeral expenses from frozen accounts. Banks will usually pay a funeral director's invoice directly from the deceased's account on presentation of the death certificate and itemized invoice — before probate.

Phase 3: Applying for Probate (Weeks 4–8)

Submit the probate application. If the deceased left a will, apply for a Grant of Probate using the MyHMCTS online portal (or the paper form PA1P for Welsh-language applications, sent to the Probate Registry of Wales in Cardiff). If there is no will, you apply for Letters of Administration using PA1A.

The application fee is £300 for estates over £5,000 (verify current amount — a fee increase to £526 has been proposed for July 2026). There is no fee for estates of £5,000 or less.

Wait for HMRC before submitting probate if IHT400 is required. If you submitted form IHT400 for a taxable estate, HMRC needs a 20-working-day processing window to generate a unique code. Do not submit the probate application before receiving this code — it is one of the most common reasons applications are rejected or delayed.

Send the original will by tracked post. After submitting online, the original will must be mailed to HMCTS for scanning. Handle the original will carefully: unexplained damage (staple holes, torn edges suggesting a missing codicil) triggers a mandatory investigation that can delay the grant by months. Never remove staples from the original will.

Wait approximately 12 weeks. Standard probate processing takes around 12 weeks from the date HMCTS receives both the digital application and the physical documents. HMCTS will not expedite before this point unless there is severe financial hardship or a property was listed for sale before the death.

Phase 4: After Probate Is Granted (Weeks 12–20+)

Obtain multiple sealed copies of the grant. Official copies cost £16 each. Order enough to send to banks, the Land Registry, pension providers, and share registrars simultaneously.

Close bank accounts and collect funds. Present the grant of probate to each financial institution to release funds. Keep all receipts and transaction records.

Transfer property. If property was held as joint tenants, submit Form DJP to the Land Registry with a death certificate (no probate needed). For sole ownership or tenants in common, you will need Form AS1 (assent) and Form AP1, together with the grant, to transfer property to beneficiaries or sell it.

In Wales, if a beneficiary gives "chargeable consideration" for a property — for example, taking on a mortgage — a Land Transaction Tax (LTT) return must be filed with the Welsh Revenue Authority.

Advertise for unknown creditors. Before distributing the residual estate, publish a notice under Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 in The Gazette and a local Welsh newspaper. You must then wait two months and one day before making final distributions. This protects you from personal liability if an unknown creditor surfaces later.

Draw up estate accounts and distribute to beneficiaries. Prepare a summary of all money received and paid out during the administration. Once the Section 27 period has expired, distribute the residual estate to beneficiaries according to the will.

The Liability Risks Every Executor Must Know

Three mistakes expose executors to personal financial liability:

1. Distributing before the Section 27 period expires. If an unknown creditor appears after you have paid beneficiaries, you may be personally responsible for the debt.
2. Paying the wrong creditor in an insolvent estate. If the estate's debts exceed its assets, debts must be paid in strict statutory order. Paying an unsecured creditor (credit card) before secured debts or funeral expenses is legally impermissible.
3. Distributing without checking for care home fees. Local authorities in Wales can claw back property values used to self-fund care. If the estate includes a property where the deceased self-funded care, check whether any outstanding care fees remain.

Wales-Specific Points

• Probate Registry of Wales: Welsh-language applications must be sent to the Cardiff office, not the England-based processing centre.
• Land Transaction Tax (LTT): Property transfers in Wales use LTT administered by the Welsh Revenue Authority, not English Stamp Duty.
• Council Tax Class F exemption: A property left empty following a death is exempt from Council Tax until probate is granted and for six months after. Welsh councils can subsequently charge premiums of up to 300% on long-term empty properties, so selling or transferring the property promptly matters.
• Unregistered land: Many rural Welsh properties purchased before 1990 are not on the Land Registry. The death of a sole owner triggers compulsory registration. Locating the physical paper deeds early is essential.

The Wales Estate Settlement Guide provides a full week-by-week executor checklist, estate inventory template, and letter templates for banks, pension providers, and the Welsh Revenue Authority.

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