Being an Executor: Your Money Duties Step by Step
📋 What an Executor Actually Does
Being named an executor in someone's will means you are the person responsible for carrying out their wishes and sorting out their money after they die. It is a real legal role with real duties, and if you get it wrong you can be personally liable. The good news is that the job follows a clear order: find the will, work out whether you need probate, tell the banks and other organisations, gather in and protect the assets, pay the debts, funeral costs and tax, keep proper accounts, and only then share what is left with the people named in the will. This guide walks through those money duties step by step, using current New Zealand rules, including the higher probate threshold that took effect on 24 September 2025. It also covers what to do when there is no will, and how a lawyer or Public Trust can take some of the load. This is general information, not legal advice.
The order of the job
Estate administration works best as a sequence. Doing things out of order, especially distributing before debts are settled, is where executors get into trouble. The usual steps are:
- Locate the will and get several copies of the death certificate.
- Work out whether probate is needed and, if so, apply to the High Court.
- Notify the banks and other organisations that hold assets or are owed money.
- Gather in and safeguard the assets so nothing is lost or wasted.
- Pay the debts, funeral costs and any tax, including the deceased's final tax return.
- Keep proper accounts of everything that comes in and goes out.
- Distribute what is left to the beneficiaries named in the will.
Step one: the will and the death certificate
Start by finding the original will. It may be at home, with the person's lawyer, or with a trustee company such as Public Trust. Check that it is the latest version and that you are named as executor. You will also need the death certificate, which is issued after the death is registered, and it pays to order several certified copies because banks and other organisations will each want to see one.
Being named in a will does not force you to take the role on. If you do not want to act, you can renounce before you start dealing with the estate, and someone else named in the will, or an administrator, can step in. Once you have begun acting as executor, though, stepping away is harder, so decide early.
Step two: do you need probate?
Probate is a court order from the High Court that confirms the will is valid and that you, the executor, have the legal authority to deal with the estate. Whether you need it depends on what the person owned and the rules of the organisations holding the assets.
There are important exceptions. If the person owned land or a house in their sole name, you almost always need probate to deal with it, whatever the value, because Land Information New Zealand requires a grant before a transfer. So a modest bank balance may not need probate, but a house nearly always does.
Applying to the High Court
If probate is needed, you apply to the High Court. The application filing fee is $275, and once the paperwork is accepted a grant usually takes a few weeks, often around six to eight weeks depending on how busy the court is. Many executors use a lawyer to prepare the application, and the reasonable cost of that comes out of the estate. Until you have the grant, most banks and organisations will not release funds above the threshold, so probate is often the gate that everything else waits on.
Until probate is granted (or the assets are small enough not to need it), you do not have clear legal authority to deal with the estate. Paying the funeral account and protecting assets is fine, but do not start distributing to beneficiaries or selling major assets until your authority is confirmed and the debts are known.
🏛️ Notifying, Gathering and Protecting Assets
Once you know whether you need probate, the next job is to tell the right people and pull the estate together in one place where you can see it and protect it.
Step three: notify banks and organisations
Contact every organisation that held money for the person or is owed money by them. Each will have its own process for a deceased customer. Typically you notify:
- Banks and any KiwiSaver or investment providers
- Inland Revenue, so tax matters can be finalised
- Work and Income or the person's superannuation provider
- Insurers, utility companies, and any lenders or creditors
- Their employer, and any landlord or tenant if they rented or let property
Notifying a bank usually freezes the individual accounts, though the bank will often still pay the funeral account directly from the estate on sighting the invoice. Notifying Inland Revenue early matters, because tax is one of the debts you must settle before you distribute.
Step four: gather in and safeguard the assets
Your duty is to gather the estate together and protect it while you administer it. That means making a full list of what the person owned and what they owed, and keeping the assets safe and insured until they are dealt with. Practical tasks include:
- Listing all assets: bank accounts, KiwiSaver, shares, vehicles, the home and its contents
- Listing all debts: mortgage, loans, credit cards, rates, power and any unpaid bills
- Keeping property insured and secure, and redirecting mail
- Getting valuations where they are needed, for example for a house or a share portfolio
- Cancelling subscriptions, memberships and services that are no longer needed
When someone dies, their KiwiSaver balance is paid to their estate, and it then passes under their will. It is one of the assets you gather in as executor. If the account holds a large sum it can be one of the reasons probate is required.
Your legal duties as executor
An executor is a type of trustee, and since 30 January 2021 the duties in the Trusts Act 2019 apply to executors and administrators as well. In plain terms, you must act honestly and in good faith, act in the interests of the beneficiaries, keep the estate's property separate from your own, keep proper records, and not profit from the role beyond any fee the will or the law allows. You are expected to act with reasonable care, not to guess.
If you distribute the estate before the debts and tax are paid, or before the time for claims has passed, you can be personally responsible for making up any shortfall. Getting the sequence right, taking advice when the estate is complex, and keeping good records are what protect you.
💰 Debts, Tax and Distributing Safely
This is the part where care matters most. You pay what the estate owes, deal with tax, keep the books, wait out the claim period, and only then hand out what is left.
Step five: pay the debts, funeral and tax
Before any beneficiary receives a cent, the estate's liabilities must be paid. That includes the funeral costs, the person's outstanding debts, and any tax owing. If the estate does not have enough cash, you may need to sell assets to pay what is owed. Only what is left after all of this, the residue, is available to distribute.
The two tax returns to think about
There are usually two separate tax jobs:
- A final personal return for the person who died. This covers their income from 1 April up to the date of death, and it uses their own IRD number, the one they had during their life.
- An estate return for any income the estate earns after the date of death, such as interest or rent while the estate is being wound up. The estate is a separate entity, so it needs its own IRD number, and returns are filed for it each year until the estate is fully distributed.
There is no estate duty or inheritance tax in New Zealand, so beneficiaries do not pay tax simply for receiving a gift under a will. What can be taxable is income the estate earns after death, which is why the estate may need to file its own returns until it is wound up.
Step six: keep proper accounts
Throughout the job you must keep clear records of every dollar that comes into the estate and every dollar that goes out. Good accounts let you show the beneficiaries exactly what happened, satisfy Inland Revenue, and protect you if anyone questions how you handled things. Keep receipts, bank statements, valuations and a running record of payments made and assets sold.
Step seven: distribute, but not too early
Only once the debts and tax are paid, and the time for claims has passed, do you distribute the residue to the beneficiaries named in the will. The timing matters. People can bring claims against an estate, for example under the Family Protection Act 1955, and a court can order money to be paid out of the estate even after you think the job is done.
It is usual to wait at least six months from the grant of probate before making final distributions, because an executor can be personally liable for distributions made in that period if a claim then succeeds. Family claims can generally be brought within 12 months of the grant, so where a claim is possible the safer course is to wait longer or hold back a reserve. Take advice if you are unsure.
Rough timeframes
People talk about the executor's year, the idea that you should aim to complete a straightforward estate within about a year. A simple estate might be wound up in six months or so, while an estate with a house to sell, a business, overseas assets or a dispute can take much longer. There is no prize for rushing, and the risks of going too fast are greater than the cost of taking your time.
If there is no will
When someone dies without a will they are said to die intestate. There is no executor, so a close family member usually applies to the High Court to become the administrator, through a grant called letters of administration. The administrator does much the same job as an executor, but the estate is shared according to the intestacy rules in the Administration Act 1969 rather than a will. Those rules set a fixed order and fixed shares for a surviving partner, children and other relatives, which may not match what the person would have chosen. This is one more reason to have a valid will.
Getting help: a lawyer or Public Trust
You do not have to do it all yourself. A lawyer can prepare the probate application and guide you through the tricky parts, with reasonable costs paid from the estate. Public Trust can either act as the executor if it is named in the will, or support you as much or as little as you need if you are the executor, including applying for probate. Their fees come out of the estate and are based on the work involved, so a simple estate costs less than a complex one. For a large, contested or complicated estate, professional help is often money well spent.
🔢 Worked Examples
These four examples show how the steps come together. The names and figures are illustrative, and every estate is different.
Situation: Ted died leaving one bank account of $28,000, some personal belongings, and no property. His daughter Sarah is the executor and sole beneficiary.
Sarah still has to do the job properly: pay the funeral account, settle any small debts, deal with Ted's final tax, keep records, and only then take what is left as the beneficiary. The estate being small does not remove the duties, it just avoids the High Court step.
Situation: Margaret died leaving a term deposit of $150,000 and a KiwiSaver balance of $60,000. Her son Daniel is the executor.
Daniel then follows the same sequence: gather the assets, pay the debts and tax, keep accounts, wait out the claim period, and distribute under the will. Because a KiwiSaver balance is paid to the estate, Margaret's $60,000 is gathered in and passes to her beneficiaries under her will.
Situation: George's estate is a house that sells for $650,000 plus $40,000 in savings, so $690,000 in total. He leaves the residue equally to his two children. His debts are a mortgage of $180,000, funeral costs of $9,000, unpaid rates and power of $2,500, a credit card of $4,500, and final income tax of $3,000.
The order is the whole point. If the executor had split the $690,000 straight away and only then found the mortgage and tax, they could have been left personally covering the $199,000 of debts. Paying the liabilities first, then distributing the $491,000 residue, is what keeps the executor safe.
Situation: Rebecca is named executor of her aunt's estate, which includes a rental property, a share portfolio and a small business interest. She works full time, lives in another city, and does not feel confident handling something this complex.
Rebecca could equally have used a lawyer, or handled parts herself and asked for help only with the tricky bits. The point is that an executor is allowed to get professional help, paid from the estate, and for a complex estate that support can prevent costly mistakes and personal liability.
Figures and rules in this guide were checked in July 2026 against: the Ministry of Justice on probate and the increase in the probate threshold to $40,000 from 24 September 2025 (justice.govt.nz); govt.nz on wills, probate and estates; Inland Revenue on filing a final return for someone who has died and on estate or trust returns (ird.govt.nz); the Administration Act 1969 and Trusts Act 2019 on New Zealand Legislation (legislation.govt.nz); and Public Trust on estate administration (publictrust.co.nz). This guide is general information, not legal advice.
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