How to choose an executor: and what you're actually asking them to do
30 July 2026 · Inherit Vault
Most people choose an executor in about ten seconds, spouse, eldest child, done. Few realise what they've just asked for. An executor in England and Wales takes on a legal role with personal liability, and the job typically runs six to twelve months. Choosing well, and preparing them properly, is one of the kindest things you can do for your family.
What the job actually is
The executor's duties: register the death, find and secure the will, value the entire estate (every account, property, pension, policy, and debt), apply for the grant of probate, pay inheritance tax from estate funds, settle debts, distribute what remains per the will, and account for all of it. They are personally liable for mistakes, distribute too early and a missed creditor can pursue them personally.
Who to choose
Pick for temperament and availability, not seniority. The ideal executor is organised, patient with paperwork, younger than you (they need to outlive you), and on speaking terms with your beneficiaries. Two executors is often wise, they can share the load and cover each other, but more than two multiplies coordination without adding much. Professional executors (solicitors, banks) are an option where family conflict is likely, but they charge, sometimes heavily, from the estate.
Always name at least one substitute. Your first choice may die before you, lose capacity, or simply refuse, nobody is obliged to accept the role.
The part everyone forgets
The single biggest determinant of how hard the job is isn't the estate's size, it's how findable everything is. An executor who knows exactly which institutions to contact does paperwork. One who doesn't becomes an investigator: sifting post for a year, guessing at pension providers from old payslips, hoping paperless accounts eventually surface. This is how assets join the UK's £50bn unclaimed pile.
So beyond choosing your executor, equip them: a current list of every institution, policy, pension, and adviser, not passwords, they'll use each institution's bereavement process, plus where the will is, and who your solicitor and accountant are. Tell them they're your executor. Tell them where the map is.
That map is what Inherit Vault holds: encrypted so only you can read it while you're alive, released to your executor through a verified process when they need it, and unlocked with the printed Recovery Certificate you leave with your will. Your executor gets the knowledge; the institutions' front doors do the rest.
Leave your family a map, not a mystery.
Inherit Vault is the UK's digital inheritance vault: every account, policy, and instruction your family will need, encrypted so only you can read it, released to your executor when it genuinely matters.
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