When someone dies, the practical list arrives long before anyone feels ready for it. There are forms, phone calls and decisions, and they land in the same fortnight you are trying to absorb the loss itself. If you are the executor, there is an extra weight on top: a sense that you are supposed to know a process nobody ever taught you, and that getting it wrong would be another way of letting everyone down.
You do not have to hold it all in your head. Almost nothing here has to happen today, and the things that are genuinely time-bound are few and clearly signposted. What follows is the first two weeks in roughly the order it needs doing, so you can do the next right thing and stop there.
First, check that you are the executor
Before anything else, it is worth confirming your role, because it shapes what you can do. An executor is the person named in the will to carry out its instructions. If there is no will, or the named executor cannot act, someone applies to be an administrator instead, and the job is broadly the same under a different name.
You are allowed to say no. If you have not yet started dealing with the estate, you can renounce the role formally, and someone else takes it on. This is worth thinking about early rather than six weeks in, because once you have begun acting it becomes much harder to step back.
Days one to five: registering the death
The medical certificate comes first
You cannot register a death until the paperwork reaches the registrar, and that part is not in your hands. Since September 2024 in England and Wales, every death that is not referred to a coroner is independently reviewed by a medical examiner. The doctor who attended completes the medical certificate of cause of death, the medical examiner scrutinises it, usually offers to talk the cause of death through with the family, and then sends it to the register office.
This matters for a practical reason that trips people up. The five-day deadline to register runs from the point the medical examiner sends that certificate to the registrar, not from the day the person died. So if you are a few days past the death and nobody has called you, you are almost certainly not late. The clock has not started.
If the death has been referred to the coroner, registration waits until the coroner decides how to proceed, and the usual timescale is effectively suspended. That can feel like limbo, and it is worth knowing it is normal rather than a sign something has gone wrong.
Booking and attending the appointment
The register office will usually contact you, or you book once the certificate is with them. Most offices work by appointment, and many now handle part of it by phone. Take with you what you can find about the person: their full name and any previous names, date and place of birth, last address, occupation and details of their marriage or civil partnership if relevant. Bring their NHS number if you have it.
You do not need to have everything. Registrars deal with incomplete information every day and will work with what you have.
Order several certified copies
This is the single most useful practical tip in the whole process. When you register, you can buy certified copies of the death certificate, and you will need far more than you expect. Banks, pension providers, insurers and share registrars each want to see one, and while many accept a copy or take details by phone, plenty still ask for a certified copy.
Buying them at the registration appointment is cheaper than ordering them later, and it saves you waiting on one document to travel around a dozen organisations. Most families find five or six about right, more if the person had a lot of accounts.
Different in Scotland and Northern Ireland
The process above describes England and Wales. In Scotland you have eight days to register, the medical examiner system does not apply in the same form, and the equivalent of probate is called confirmation, applied for through the sheriff court. Northern Ireland has its own registration and probate arrangements. If the death happened outside England and Wales, check the local process rather than assuming these steps carry across.
Use Tell Us Once while you are there
When you register the death, the registrar will usually offer Tell Us Once. It is free, it takes a few minutes, and it is one of the genuinely good pieces of government admin.
With a single report it notifies HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions for the State Pension and any benefits, the Passport Office, the DVLA, the local council for council tax, any Blue Badge and the electoral roll, and some public sector pension schemes. You either complete it there and then with the registrar, or take a reference number away and do it online or by phone.
Two things worth knowing. It does not tell banks, insurers, utilities or private pensions, so that side is still yours to do. And it is not available in Northern Ireland, which runs a separate bereavement service. Our fuller Tell Us Once guide covers what it does and does not reach.
Do it promptly. It stops benefit and pension payments that would otherwise keep arriving and later have to be repaid out of the estate, which is a tedious thing to unpick months down the line.
Find the will, and read it before the funeral
If you have not already, locate the will. Check the obvious places at home, then the person’s solicitor, their bank and any will-storage service they might have used. It confirms you are the executor, names the beneficiaries and sometimes contains funeral wishes or details of a prepaid funeral plan.
Read it before you commit to funeral arrangements. It is a small thing that occasionally saves a great deal, both money and family disagreement, because the wishes are sometimes different from what everyone assumed.
Arranging the funeral, and paying for it
The funeral is usually the first significant expense, and it commonly lands before anyone has access to the estate. This is the part that worries families most, and it is more manageable than it looks.
Banks and building societies will typically pay a funeral director’s invoice directly from the person’s frozen account, even though probate has not been granted, once they have seen the death certificate and the invoice. You do not have to fund it yourself and hope. If you do pay personally, keep the receipts, because reasonable funeral costs are a legitimate expense of the estate and you can be reimbursed.
Check too whether there was a prepaid funeral plan, and whether any benefits apply. Funeral Expenses Payment may be available to some people on qualifying benefits, and Bereavement Support Payment may be available to a surviving spouse or civil partner. Neither is means-tested in the way people assume, so it is worth checking rather than dismissing.
Week one: who to notify first, and what they will ask for
Once the death is registered, the notification work begins. You do not have to do it all at once, and there is a sensible order.
Banks and building societies
Start here, because accounts need to be secured. The free Death Notification Service lets you tell several banks and building societies in a single online submission, and most of the large high-street names are members. Each one updates its records and comes back to you, usually within about ten days. App-based banks such as Monzo and Starling are notified directly. Our guide to telling banks walks through it, and we have a page for each major bank.
Pensions, insurers and employer
Contact any private or workplace pension providers, because some pay a lump sum on death and most need to stop payments promptly. Tell any life insurers, and check whether there was death-in-service cover through an employer, which families frequently miss. If the person was working, tell the employer, who will deal with final pay and any benefits.
The property
If a home is now empty, tell the buildings insurer. Empty properties are treated differently by insurers and cover can lapse or be restricted, which is the last thing an estate needs. Make sure the property is secure, that post is not piling up visibly and that the heating is set sensibly if it is winter.
What they will all ask for
The requests are broadly the same wherever you go:
- The death certificate, or an interim certificate from the coroner.
- Proof of who you are, usually a passport or driving licence.
- The account or policy details you have for the person.
- Later, a grant of probate, but only where the value sits above that organisation’s threshold.
You do not need all of this ready before you make the first call. Tell them first and they will tell you what to send. Every large organisation has a bereavement team, and they do this every day.
Week two: start building the picture
With the urgent notifications done, the second week is about gathering rather than deciding. You are building a picture of what the person owned and what they owed, because that determines both whether you need probate and whether there is any inheritance tax to deal with.
Collect statements and paperwork for bank and savings accounts, pensions, investments, ISAs and Premium Bonds, property, vehicles and anything of real value. Then do the same for the other side: mortgage, loans, credit cards, outstanding bills. Debts matter as much as assets, because the estate pays what is owed before anyone inherits.
Our guides on gathering the paperwork and valuing an estate take this stage in detail, and do you need probate helps you work out whether a grant is required at all. Not every estate needs one.
Keep a simple record as you go: who you contacted, when, what they said, what reference they gave you. It feels like bureaucracy on top of grief, and it is the thing that saves you most time later.
What you can and cannot do before probate
This is where executors most often go wrong, so it is worth being precise.
You generally can:
- Register the death and use Tell Us Once.
- Arrange the funeral and have it paid from the person’s account.
- Notify banks, providers, pension schemes and insurers.
- Gather information and value the estate.
- Secure and insure the property and other assets.
- Close small accounts where the balance falls under that provider’s threshold.
You generally cannot:
- Sell property or transfer it to anyone.
- Formally transfer or sell most investments and shareholdings.
- Distribute money or possessions to beneficiaries.
The grant of probate is what confirms your authority to do those things. Acting too early is the single most common mistake, and it carries real consequences: if you distribute the estate before debts and taxes are settled, you can be held personally liable for the shortfall. Gather first, distribute last.
If you are worried about debts you may not know about, ask a solicitor about placing a statutory notice for creditors. Done properly, it protects you against claims from creditors you could not reasonably have known about.
Looking after yourself
One last thing, because nobody puts it on the checklist. Being an executor while grieving is genuinely hard, and the admin has a way of becoming the thing you do instead of grieving. Do what needs doing, then stop. Accept help with the phone calls. Nothing here is improved by exhaustion, and almost none of it is as urgent as it feels at eleven at night.
You are also allowed to hand it over. Executors can instruct a solicitor to handle probate and estate administration, paid for from the estate, and many people do exactly that for the parts they would rather not carry.
When to get professional help
Do consider a solicitor or a STEP-qualified adviser where the estate includes property being sold, a business, agricultural land, trusts, assets abroad or significant lifetime gifts. The same applies if the estate is near or above the inheritance tax threshold, if there is no will or if there is any sign of a dispute between beneficiaries. The cost is usually modest against the risk of getting a complicated estate wrong, and it comes out of the estate rather than your pocket.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to register the death? In England and Wales, five days from the point the medical examiner sends the certificate to the registrar, which is often later than the date of death. Scotland allows eight days. If a coroner is involved, registration waits until they decide how to proceed.
Can I pay for the funeral before probate? Usually yes. Most banks will pay a funeral director’s invoice directly from the person’s frozen account once they have seen the death certificate and the invoice. If you pay personally, keep receipts and reclaim the cost from the estate.
Do I have to do all of this myself? No. You can instruct a solicitor to handle probate and estate administration, paid from the estate, and you can do the straightforward parts yourself and take advice on the rest.
What happens if I distribute the estate too early? You can be held personally liable for any shortfall if debts or taxes emerge afterwards. Settle what is owed first, keep clear estate accounts and take advice about a statutory notice for creditors if you are uncertain.
Do I need probate at all? Not always. It depends on what the person owned and how they owned it. Jointly owned assets often pass to the surviving owner outside probate, and many providers release smaller balances without a grant.
Sources
- GOV.UK: What to do when someone dies, Tell Us Once, and Applying for probate
- GOV.UK and NHS England: medical examiner system and the medical certificate of cause of death
- Death Notification Service
- mygov.scot and nidirect for Scotland and Northern Ireland
