Leaving a valid will where you have appointed an executor is the best way to ensure that your wishes and your estate is dealt with as you would want after you have died.

However, the role of executor comes with many duties and responsibilities that may feel daunting to your executor, especially while they are grieving the loss of a loved one or friend.  In particular, the executor is personally liable to settle all debts and outstanding liabilities of an estate and to ensure it is distributed correctly. Michael Davies is a paralegal in the Probate and Estate Administration team at Wollens and writes this helpful article. 

In order to make the executor’s task of administering an estate a little bit easier and not so stressful or time consuming here are some tips for the information that you can provide, while alive and stored with your will, that will help your executor fulfil their role and administer your estate correctly.

Information for Registering the Death:

Once you have passed away a family member or close friend, who may or not be the executor, or even a solicitor, can register your death with the local authority registrars for the area in which you died.  For the death certificate to be completed as fully and accurately as possible the following information is required:

• Your full name and any other previous names and maiden name.
• Your main address, this can be tricky to decide what address to give as at the date of death if you have been staying temporarily in hospital or a nursing/care home.
• Place of birth, which can be found on a passport or birth certificate.
• Date of birth, which can be found on a driving licence, passport or birth certificate.
• The occupation you would most like to be associated with or remembered by.
• Details of a pre-deceased spouse or partner, including their full name, date of birth/death, their occupation and main address.

Although it does not appear on the death certificate other useful information to provide your executor with includes the following:

• National Insurance Number – this will be needed for the Tell Us Once Scheme which can be used by the executor to contact various important government departments such HMRC, DWP and DVLA.
• NHS Number – this will help the registrar identify the deceased and ensure the correct medical information is recorded on the death certificate.

All this information can be included in a simple document that is held alongside your will and updated at any time.

Funeral Wishes:

These can be specifically stated in your will as to whether you wish to be buried or cremated.  However, you can add more details to this like the type of service you would like, religious or not, what hymns or music you wish to be played at the service.  This information can help your executor immensely with arranging your funeral and making sure it is conducted as you would have liked.

If you have organised and paid for a funeral plan then the policy details are very useful for the executor to have so they can contact the relevant company and funeral directors to arrange everything – especially if you have a pre-paid burial plot or have specific instructions as to where you wish your ashes to be scattered.

Bequeathed Items:

In your will you can state which of your personal possessions  (which can include jewellery, artwork, ornaments, collectables etc)  are specifically bequeathed to which family members or friends.  To avoid doubt or confusion about which item you are referring to and to whom you want it to go to you can provide your executor with a list of items with clear and accurate descriptions or even photos of the item so it is easier for them to distribute the right item to the right beneficiary.

Schedule of Assets and Liabilities:

In order for your executor to find and understand all the assets and liabilities that make up your estate it is very useful for the executor if you provide a list of all the assets, this can include:

• Bank and or Building Society accounts and the associated details including sort code and account number.
• Any NSI products and your holder number.
• Private pensions and annuity or life insurance policies, again with references or holder names or numbers.

If you have a property then all the details for this property are extremely helpful and if possible, to provide the executor with information including:

• Land Registry Official Copy Entries or Conveyancing Deeds – this will help the executor ascertain how the property title is held which will then determine how best to administer it during the estate administration.
• If you own the leasehold to a flat or apartment then the executor will need to know details of the management company, any service or maintenance charges, rental agreement and also terms and conditions of buying/selling the leasehold, especially if it is for those over a certain age only.
• Information for the utility providers with your costumer reference number as found on a bill, as well as details for council tax.
• If you rented a property then details for the management company or landlord would be useful to provide your executor with so they can make contact to discuss clearing the property and paying final bills.
• Any information regarding building and or contents insurance.
• If you have a vehicle then providing the executor with this information and or where to find the keys, MOT documents and V5C is most useful.
• If you have any shareholdings then the executor will need to know which share registrar to contact with the company the shares are held in, your shareholder reference for each shareholding, and ideally, where any certificated shares are stored.

The Executor is responsible for ensuring that all your liabilities are settled in fulling using assets from your Estate. As such, the executor will need to contact the utility companies, local council, credit card, loans or mortgage companies to ascertain whether there are any final bills to pay, or refunds to collect in on behalf of the estate.

All this information will help your executor understand the value of your estate and help them determine whether inheritance tax is payable or even if a grant of probate is required at all.

All this information can be included in a simple document that is held alongside your will and updated at any time.

What can we do to help?

We understand all this can seem very daunting to an executor.  Estate administration can be very time consuming and stressful and the executor is personally liable to settle all debts and outstanding liabilities so any information you can provide your executor with can really help them administer your estate.

We have a specialist Estate Administration team here at Wollens that would be happy to help any executor (or lead administrator for an intestacy) and assist them with administering an estate.

You can also complete an online enquiry form. One of the Wollens team will contact you as soon as they are available.