If someone has died and you are the executor, here is the honest headline: only a few things are genuinely urgent. In England and Wales you (or, more usually, a relative) must register the death within 5 days. Any dependants and pets need care arranged. The home needs securing, and its insurer needs to know it may be standing empty. The will needs finding, partly because it may contain funeral wishes. Everything else on the long lists you will find online, valuations, tax forms, probate applications, belongs to the weeks and months that follow, not to this one.
That distinction matters because most guides, including the official gov.uk step by step, present the tasks as a flat sequence without telling you which ones carry a deadline. This guide does the opposite. It organises the first 30 days by urgency: what must happen within days, what belongs in the first fortnight, what can wait until week three or four, and what is safely a "later" problem. It is written for England and Wales (Scotland differs in places, and we flag the main one) and it assumes you are the named executor. If it turns out there is no will, the same practical steps apply but the legal position changes, and our guide to who inherits when there is no will explains what happens next. Once the first steps are done, the question becomes how long the rest will take: our free probate timeline estimator maps your estate against the latest official court statistics in about two minutes.
Days 1 to 5: the genuinely urgent list
1. Get the medical certificate and register the death
Before registration can happen, a medical examiner reviews the cause of death and a medical certificate is issued, or the death is referred to the coroner (for example where the death was unexpected). The register office will not register the death without this paperwork, so if there is a coroner referral, the 5 day expectation effectively pauses and the coroner's office will tell you what happens next.
Once the certificate is with the registrar, the death must normally be registered within 5 days in England and Wales (8 days in Scotland). Registration is usually done by a relative, but an executor can do it where no relative is available. You will receive the death certificate, and this is the moment to buy extra certified copies. Banks, insurers, pension schemes and investment platforms each tend to want their own copy, and ordering half a dozen now is cheaper and far quicker than ordering them one at a time later.
2. Use Tell Us Once
At registration you will be offered Tell Us Once, a free service that reports the death to HMRC, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Passport Office, DVLA, the local council and some public sector pension schemes in a single go. The registrar gives you a reference number and you complete it online or by phone within 28 days. Use it. It removes a dozen separate phone calls from your list and, just as importantly, it stops state pension and benefit payments quickly, so the estate does not build up overpayments it must later repay.
3. Arrange immediate care and secure the home
Dependants, pets and the property itself all need someone responsible for them from day one. For the home: collect the keys, check the doors and windows, remove obvious valuables to safekeeping (keep a note of what you moved and where), cancel milk, meal and subscription deliveries, redirect or collect the post, and ask a trusted neighbour to keep an eye on things. If it is winter and the house will be empty, consider heating at a low setting or draining the water system, because a burst pipe in an empty house is exactly the sort of loss an insurer will resist paying for.
4. Tell the home insurer, this week, not later
This is the trap that catches more executors than any other, and the big official checklists barely mention it. Many household insurance policies restrict or void cover once a property has been unoccupied for around 30 days, and some apply conditions sooner. Some policies also lapse or change on the policyholder's death itself. Ring the insurer in the first week, tell them the policyholder has died and the property may be empty, and ask exactly what they require to keep cover in place. That may mean regular documented inspections, winter precautions or a switch to specialist unoccupied property insurance. As executor you are responsible for preserving the estate's assets, and an uninsured house is the fastest way to fail at that. The same logic applies to a car sitting on the drive: it needs insurance if kept on a road, or a SORN declaration to DVLA if kept off road.
5. Find the will before the funeral is fixed
Registering the death does not require the will, but the funeral planning benefits from it, because wills often record burial or cremation wishes and sometimes name a funeral plan that is already paid for. Check the person's home papers, ask their solicitor, will writer or bank, and consider a search of the National Will Register. The will also confirms something you may only be assuming: who the executors actually are. If you cannot find a will, do not panic and do not guess. Our guides to wills and to intestacy cover both branches.
Week 1 to 2: funeral, money in the gap, and first notifications
The funeral. Check for a prepaid funeral plan or a death in service benefit before committing to costs. And know this before anyone pays personally: funeral costs rank ahead of almost everything else against the estate, and banks will usually pay the funeral director's invoice directly from the deceased's frozen account if you send it to them, even before probate. If the estate genuinely has no money, the government's Funeral Expenses Payment may help those on qualifying benefits.
Bank accounts. Notify each bank with a death certificate. Sole accounts will be frozen; joint accounts normally pass to the surviving holder and keep working. Frozen does not mean inaccessible for everything: besides funeral invoices, most banks operate their own thresholds for releasing modest balances without a grant. Whether the estate as a whole will need a grant at all is a separate question with its own rules, covered in do you need probate.
Other notifications. Beyond the Tell Us Once organisations, work through employers or pension providers, private pension schemes, life insurers, utility companies (accounts should go into "executors of" status, not be cut off), mortgage lender or landlord, mobile and broadband providers, and subscriptions. Register the person with the Bereavement Register to cut down marketing post, which many families find distressing.
One thing that ends immediately: any lasting power of attorney. If you were acting as attorney for the person, that authority died with them, and the will (or the intestacy rules) takes over. The two regimes are often confused, and power of attorney vs probate explains where one stops and the other starts.
Weeks 2 to 4: laying the groundwork for the estate
Nobody expects a probate application by day 30. What a well run first month produces is the raw material for one:
- Build the asset and debt list. Go through paperwork, post and (where you can lawfully access them) statements: bank and savings accounts, investments, pensions, property, vehicles, valuables, and on the other side the mortgage, loans, credit cards and household bills. This list becomes the backbone of the estate valuation for HMRC.
- Request date of death valuations. Write to each institution asking for the balance or value at the date of death. Property can wait a little longer, but for anything near the inheritance tax threshold, plan for proper valuations rather than guesses.
- Note the tax clock. Any inheritance tax due must be paid by the end of the sixth month after the month of death, after which HMRC charges interest. Day 30 is too early to pay anything, but not too early to know whether the estate is likely to owe tax, which our inheritance tax guide will help you judge.
- Open a record. A simple spreadsheet and a folder (paper or digital) for every letter, valuation and receipt. Executors are personally accountable to beneficiaries and to HMRC, and the file you start in week two is your protection in month ten.
Want this checked against your specific situation?
Leave your details and a one-line summary. A probate specialist will reply within 24 hours, with no obligation.
The first 30 days at a glance
| When | Task | Who usually does it |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 5 | Medical certificate, register the death (5 days in England and Wales), buy extra death certificates | Next of kin (executor if no relative available) |
| Days 1 to 5 | Tell Us Once, care for dependants and pets, secure the home, notify the home and car insurers | Next of kin and executor together |
| Days 1 to 7 | Locate the will, check for funeral wishes and a prepaid plan | Executor |
| Week 1 to 2 | Arrange the funeral, send the invoice to the bank for direct payment | Next of kin, with the executor checking estate funds |
| Week 1 to 2 | Notify banks, pensions, insurers, utilities, landlord or lender | Executor |
| Weeks 2 to 4 | Build the asset and debt list, request date of death valuations, start the estate file | Executor |
| After day 30 | Estate valuation, inheritance tax forms, probate application, administration | Executor, with help if needed |
Next of kin tasks vs executor tasks
A distinction most checklists blur: some of the early jobs belong to the family, and some belong specifically to whoever the will names. Registering the death and arranging the funeral are conventionally done by the next of kin, and any relative can do them. But the executor's authority over the estate comes from the will and begins at the date of death, not at the grant of probate. The grant confirms that authority; it does not create it. That is why an executor can and should secure property, insure assets and gather information from day one, even though banks will generally want to see the grant before releasing significant sums. If there is no will, nobody holds that authority until the court appoints an administrator, which is one reason intestate estates start slower.
Being named executor is also a role you can decline, provided you have not started "intermeddling" in the estate (dealing with its assets as if you had accepted). If you already suspect the role is not for you, decide early, before you act.
What happens after day 30
With the first month done, the work shifts from urgent protection to methodical administration: completing the valuation, working out whether inheritance tax forms are needed, applying for the grant, then collecting in, paying debts and distributing. Our executor step by step guide walks the whole journey from here, and the main probate guide covers the application itself, including the court fee (£526 once an estate tops £5,000). For a realistic sense of the road ahead: the court stage itself averaged 4.5 weeks for digital applications in the most recent HMCTS quarter, and the stages either side of it usually take far longer. Our free probate timeline estimator turns your estate's specifics (will or no will, property to sell, tax forms needed) into a stage by stage timetable.
One reassurance to carry out of month one: the law gives executors time. Beneficiaries cannot generally demand distribution within a year of the death, and a careful executor is a good executor. The first 30 days are about protecting the estate, not finishing it.
When to bring in a specialist
Most of the first month is practical rather than legal, and most people handle it themselves. If the estate looks complicated (inheritance tax likely, a business, overseas assets, family tension, or no will and an unclear family tree), it is worth an early conversation before decisions harden. This article is general information, not legal advice. We can connect you with a vetted probate specialist who will look at your situation, and our executors hub gathers everything on this site written for the role you have just taken on.