The short version: an executor's job is five things, in order — locate everything the person had, prove your authority to deal with it (often a grant of probate), protect it while you do, pay the debts and tax, and only then distribute what's left — keeping records the whole way. In the first days: find the will, get certified death certificates, secure the property. A simple estate takes months, and the hard part is usually finding things, not law.
Almost no one is trained to be an executor. You're handed the role by someone who trusted you, usually at the worst possible time — they've died, you're grieving, and now you're also the person legally responsible for sorting out everything they left behind. There's a will, which feels like it should be the answer. It isn't. The will says who gets what. You are the person who has to actually make that happen — and you can be held personally responsible for getting it right.
Here's the job, in the order it actually comes at you.
What an executor actually does
An executor carries out the will. In practice that's five jobs, roughly in sequence: locate everything the person had, prove your authority to deal with it, protect it while you do, pay what's owed, and distribute what's left to the people named in the will — keeping clean records the whole way, because the beneficiaries are entitled to an account of what you did.
It is not a single afternoon. A straightforward estate takes months; a complicated one can take more than a year. None of it is beyond an ordinary person — but it rewards doing things in the right order, because some steps can't be undone.
The thing nobody warns you about: it's mostly a search
People imagine the hard part of being an executor is the law, or the big decisions. It usually isn't. The hard part is that the operating knowledge of a whole life died with the person — and you have to reconstruct it.
Which banks? Was there a second super fund from an old job? Is that insurance policy still in force, and who's the insurer? Where's the share portfolio, the title deed, the spare set of keys? What's the password to the email that every other account resets through? Most of an executor's first months are spent being a detective — opening mail, calling institutions, guessing — not because the law is hard, but because nobody left a map.
Keep that in mind as you read the list below: at almost every step, the work is finding the thing before you can act on it.
The checklist
1. The first days
- Find the will and confirm it's the latest one. Note who else is named (co-executors, the solicitor who may hold the original).
- Register the death / get the death certificate. The funeral director usually lodges this with the state Births, Deaths & Marriages registry; you'll need certified copies for almost everything that follows.
- Arrange the funeral in line with any wishes — funeral costs are normally paid from the estate.
- Secure and protect assets straight away: lock up the property, make sure it stays insured, look after pets, deal with anything perishable, and stop obvious losses (cancel nothing financial yet, but don't let a house sit unsecured).
- Notify the people who need to know early: any co-executor, the deceased's employer, and — practically — start a list of every account and institution as you discover it.
2. Establish your authority (probate)
- Work out whether you need a grant of probate. It's the Supreme Court of the relevant state or territory confirming the will is valid and you're authorised to act. Whether you need it depends mostly on what's held and by whom — banks, share registries, and land titles offices set their own thresholds, and a small, simple estate sometimes doesn't need it at all.
- If you do, apply to the Supreme Court in the state where the assets are. Many executors do this themselves for a simple estate; a solicitor is worth it once there's property, a business, or any hint of a dispute.
3. Take stock (the inventory)
- Identify and value everything — accounts, super, shares, property, vehicles, personal valuables — and every debt: the mortgage, loans, credit cards, unpaid bills, tax owing.
- Remember superannuation often sits outside the will and is paid under a separate (binding or non-binding) nomination — find out where it's going before you assume it's yours to distribute.
- This inventory is the spine of everything else: you can't pay debts or distribute fairly until you know the full picture.
4. Protect and pay — in the right order
- Keep the estate's money separate and keep records of every transaction. You're accountable for all of it.
- Pay debts, tax, and expenses before distributing anything. This is where executors get personally caught out: distribute too early and a creditor (or the ATO) appears, and you can be left covering it.
- Tax doesn't stop at death: there's usually a final personal tax return for the deceased, and sometimes a separate return for the estate. Get advice if there's any income or capital gain in the mix.
- In some states you can publish a notice of intended distribution and wait a set period, which protects you against unknown claims surfacing later. Worth knowing before you hand anything over.
5. Distribute — carefully
- Pay the gifts and shares exactly as the will sets out, only once debts, tax, and expenses are settled.
- Get a signed acknowledgement from each beneficiary as they receive their share.
- Prepare a final set of accounts showing what came in, what went out, and what each person received — the beneficiaries are entitled to see it.
6. Keep records the whole way
From day one, keep every certificate, statement, valuation, receipt, and piece of correspondence. An executor who can show a clean, complete record has done the job properly; one who can't is exposed, even if every decision was right.
Take the paper version with you.
One A4 page to fill in by hand — where things are and who to call, never the secrets themselves. We’re building the software version; leave your email and we’ll send you the map now, and one note when it’s ready.
No newsletter, no drip — the map now, one email when it ships. Unsubscribe any time.
Why it's so much harder than it needs to be
Read that list again and notice how much of it is gated on information you don't have: which institutions, which policies, where the documents are, who to call. The law gives you a clear sequence. What it can't give you is the map of the particular life you're now responsible for — and without that map, an executor spends the hardest months of the job simply trying to find out what exists.
That's avoidable. The single kindest thing anyone can do for their own executor is leave that map behind: what they have, where it is, who to call, and what to do first — held somewhere current, not scribbled in a drawer that's out of date by the time it's opened.
What we're building for this
That map is what Hovenly Continuity is for. It's a living runbook of a household's assets, where access lives (never the secrets themselves), who the people are — executor, solicitor, accountant — and what to do first, sorted so the urgent, money-and-obligations items come before the rest. It nudges the owner when an answer goes stale, and it degrades to ink: it prints to a single plain document an executor can hold and work from, no app or login required. The point isn't the software; it's that the executor opens a current map instead of starting a months-long search.
Continuity is what we're building next — the runbook corner of the suite, after Larder, Papers, and Days. If you've ever been an executor — or you're writing your will and don't want to leave someone that search — you can reserve a founding place: no charge until it's actually in your hands, leave any time. Founding members lock the founding price and help shape what gets built.
This is a practical guide, not legal or financial advice. Executor duties, probate, and the rules on notices and distribution vary by state and territory and depend on the estate; for anything involving property, a business, tax, or a possible dispute, get a solicitor. Its only job is to show the shape of the role — and how much easier it is when someone leaves a map.