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The reality of being an executor

Journalist: Imogen Tew, Freelance

ended 14. July 2026

Hi all, I'm looking for a quick comment about how stressful and time-consuming being an executor of a will can be, especially with delays at the probate office and the fact estates can be so messy these days. Urgent deadline - thank you!

7 responses from the Newspage community

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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
Acting as an executor can feel less like an honour and more like a second job at precisely the worst emotional moment. You may be gathering bank details, valuing property, dealing with HMRC, chasing probate, paying debts, keeping beneficiaries informed and then distributing what is left, often while grieving. Delays at the probate office can leave families stuck in limbo, and modern estates are rarely simple: pensions, investments, digital accounts, blended families, property and tax questions can all add friction. For straightforward estates, many executors cope perfectly well. But where there is property, inheritance tax, family tension or incomplete records, getting professional help can prevent costly mistakes and take a huge amount of pressure off the person left holding the paperwork.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
It depends on the clarity of the Will and the quality of the estate planning. If things have been set up correctly and the arrangements are crystal clear, being an executor is easy. But, if someone has done a bad DIY job, or penny pinched on arrangements; trying to decipher and sort it out can be a burden on both time and sanity. Get proper advice and make sure your estate planning is done professionally and clearly.
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Tony Redondo
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
Acting as an executor is now rated second only to moving house for stress, a demanding part-time job that often drags on for 9 to 18 months. Probate has become a gruelling waiting game. While clean digital applications take 5 to 12 weeks, any minor discrepancy, from a misaligned figure to a simple staple mark, triggers a "stop" that shunts the file into manual review, adding months of delays. Modern life fragments administration further. Paperless accounts, online shares, crypto keys, and multiple pensions turn asset-tracing into forensic detective work, while blended families and overseas assets add friction. Worst of all, executors carry strict personal financial liability; distribute funds too early, and a late creditor or beneficiary can leave you legally covering the shortfall. To protect themselves, executors must often wait six months post-grant to distribute assets, a necessary caution that frequently infuriates grieving beneficiaries.
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Anita Wright
Chartered Financial Planner at Ribble Wealth Management
Every estate tells the truth about how someone really lived. And the truth, increasingly, is complexity. The easy assumption is that everything is in order a will signed, a named solicitor, a file that looks tidy. The reality is messier. Wealth now sits in fragments: a dozen apps, a forgotten workplace pension, crypto with no key, a flat abroad, a policy no one remembered. None of it talks to the rest.
The executor is the one who discovers, too late, that the system was never as organised as it looked. And they find out at the worst moment grieving, while a probate office that once moved in weeks now takes months. That is the quiet cost of complexity. It stays hidden until someone has to settle it, and the bill always lands on the person left behind. If you care about the person you name as your executor, spare them the treasure hunt. Write down what you own, and where to find it.
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Steven Greenall
Director at Greenall Estate Planning
Whilst being named as an executor can be seen as an honour, in reality the role comes with a lot of administrative duties that can be time-consuming and with pensions included in the estate from April 2027 it will only become more onerous.
From registering the death, locating the will, identification of assets and liabilities, paying IHT, keeping records and distribution of estate to beneficiaries it's a role that can also be emotionally challenging when dealing with beneficiaries who may expect their money before all other debts and IHT is settled.
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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
Being an executor is essentially an unpaid part-time job that lands at the worst possible moment. Probate that once took weeks now drags on for months, and one misaligned figure can push a file into manual review for even longer. Add paperless accounts, forgotten pensions and family tension, and asset-tracing starts to feel like detective work.
It is not for the faint-hearted. Executors carry personal financial liability, so if the estate involves property, IHT or incomplete records, professional help is not a luxury. It is protection for the person left holding the paperwork.
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Debbie Porter
Managing Director at Destination Digital Marketing
I acted as executor for my father in law's estate. I say 'acted' because it was his wife that was executor, but she was too grief-stricken to carry out the task. So I had the burden of making phone calls, whispering around corners to call operators about her grief, before then getting her to come to the phone to confirm who she was briefly before I carried on with the business of sorting out the estate.

My father in law was an organised man, but it still meant sitting for weeks in his study going through every bank statement and piece of paper to determine if there was yet another bank account or share certificate I hadn't already known about that needed accounting for. When my mother in law then died some years later, the disorganisation of her papers made a huge difference in how long it took to wind up the estate. Think ahead when you nominate someone to tie up your affairs and make things easier on them at a time you also have grief to contend with, and a funeral to organise.