What are the responsibilities of the Executors/Personal Representatives?

Their responsibilities include:

• Gathering full information about the assets and liabilities in the estate;
• Providing a full inheritance tax account to HMRC (where inheritance tax is due to be paid;
• Paying the inheritance tax due out of the estate;
• Dealing with the funeral arrangements and arrangements for the deceased’d body;
• Collecting in all of the real and personal estate;
• Maintaining the assets safely, once collected in;
• Paying all liabilities within the estate (where the estate is solvent);
• Where required to do so, delivering a full inventory and account of the estate to the court;
• The duty to invest the assets where the estate will not be distributed for some time;
• The duty to preserve the deceased’d business by carrying it on for a short period of time until sale (if express power is granted in the Will to do so);
• Acting with due diligence. Estate Personal Representatives are bound by the same statutory duty of care as Trustees.