If you are reading this because someone has died and you have been named executor, first: take a breath. There is no part of this that needs to be done in the next hour. The estate is not a fire. It is a list of tasks, most of which are simple once you know they exist.
This guide breaks the first 30 days into four weeks. You will not necessarily move at this pace, and that is fine. The point is to give you a structure so you are not trying to hold the whole thing in your head while grieving.
Week 1: register the death and secure the basics
The first week is about three things: making the death official, locating the Will, and putting a brief hold on accounts and access so nothing drifts before you have a plan.
Register the death
- The funeral director will usually register the death with the Department of Internal Affairs on your behalf within three working days. Confirm they are doing this.
- Order at least three or four certified copies of the death certificate from DIA. Banks, KiwiSaver providers, insurers, and the High Court will each want their own. Photocopies are not always accepted.
- Cause-of-death certificates and standard death certificates are different documents. For estate work, you want the standard one.
Locate the Will
- Check the obvious places first: a home safe, a filing cabinet, a folder marked "important."
- Then contact their lawyer, if they had one. Most Wills in New Zealand are held by the solicitor who drafted them.
- If no Will is found, the Public Trust and the NZ Law Society can run searches. Banks (especially the major trustee companies) sometimes hold Wills in safe custody as well.
- If there is no Will at all, the estate is intestate. Distribution is governed by the Administration Act 1969 and an administrator (rather than an executor) needs to be appointed. This is a different track and worth getting legal advice on early.
Secure the property and personal effects
- Check the home is locked, mail is being collected, and any pets are being cared for.
- Note any cash, jewellery, important documents, and devices (phones, laptops). Do not start distributing items yet, even to family members who ask, until you have read the Will.
- Make sure house and contents insurance stays in force. Unoccupied homes sometimes have separate rules under an insurance policy; check the policy or call the insurer.
Notify the first round of agencies
- IRD. Inland Revenue should be notified so a final tax return can be prepared and any Working for Families or other payments stopped.
- Work and Income (MSD). If they received NZ Super, Jobseeker, or any other benefit, MSD needs to be told. Payments usually stop from the date of death.
- Electoral roll. The Electoral Commission has a simple form to remove a deceased person from the roll.
- Their primary bank. Call them. Joint accounts and sole accounts are handled differently. The bank will usually freeze sole accounts until a grant of probate is provided, but will release small amounts for funeral costs against an invoice.
- NZ Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi). Cancel their driver licence so it cannot be misused.
Weeks 2 and 3: probate, KiwiSaver, employer
The second and third weeks are mostly about paperwork. None of it is particularly difficult, but it can move slowly because each agency has its own process.
Apply for probate (if required)
- Probate is a High Court grant that confirms the Will is valid and gives you, the executor, authority to deal with the estate. You apply at the High Court, usually through a lawyer.
- If there is no Will, you (or another suitable person) apply for letters of administration instead.
- Small estate threshold. If the total value of any single asset held by a third party (a bank account, KiwiSaver balance, etc.) is under $15,000, that institution can release it without probate, under section 65 of the Administration Act. Note that the threshold is per asset per institution, not the whole estate. Each bank and provider also applies its own internal rules, which can be more conservative.
- Probate typically takes a few weeks to a few months once filed. Costs depend on the lawyer and the complexity, but a straightforward estate is usually under $2,500.
KiwiSaver
- Identify the KiwiSaver provider. If you do not know who it is, IRD can tell you.
- Contact the provider, supply a death certificate, and request the release forms.
- A KiwiSaver balance does not have nominated beneficiaries (unlike some overseas superannuation). It forms part of the estate and is paid to the executor under the Will, after probate (or after small-estate forms if the balance is under the threshold).
Employer and other superannuation
- Notify their employer. There may be unpaid wages, accrued leave, and sometimes a death-in-service benefit through workplace insurance or super.
- If they were a member of a workplace super scheme or an older private super fund, contact the trustees. Many of these have nominated beneficiaries that bypass the estate, so it pays to ask early.
- If they had life insurance, contact the insurer with a death certificate. Life insurance proceeds with a named beneficiary do not always form part of the estate.
Property records
- If they owned property, request the title from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to confirm ownership structure. A joint tenancy passes automatically to the surviving owner. A tenancy in common does not.
- If they ran a business, notify the Companies Office of the death of any director or shareholder. There may be succession rules in the shareholders' agreement.
Week 4: closing accounts, subscriptions, digital life
By the fourth week you should have the basics under control and can start dealing with the longer tail of accounts and services. This is the part of executor work that surprises most people, because it just keeps going.
Close or transfer accounts
- Once you have probate, the major banks will release funds and close sole accounts. Joint accounts usually transfer to the surviving holder, but require a death certificate to update the record.
- Investment accounts (Sharesies, Hatch, Kernel, Simplicity, InvestNow) each have their own deceased estate process. Most are reasonable; expect to provide a death certificate and probate.
- Utility accounts (power, internet, broadband) need to be closed or transferred. Final bills should be sent to the estate.
Cancel subscriptions
- This is the part executors most often miss. Streaming services, gym memberships, software subscriptions, cloud storage, magazines, dating apps, donations on auto-renewal: they keep billing.
- The fastest way to find them is a careful read of the last three months of bank and credit card statements, looking for any recurring charges.
- Some subscriptions can only be cancelled from inside the account, which means you need to get into the email address that owns them. This is where digital access planning matters.
Digital accounts
- Email is the most important one to deal with, because almost every other account resets through it. If a Legacy Contact was set up (Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple Digital Legacy), use it. If not, you will need to apply to the provider directly with a death certificate and proof of executor status.
- Social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) can be memorialised or deleted. Each has its own form.
- For a deeper walkthrough on this part, see our guide on how to give an executor access to a digital life.
What an executor is not responsible for
People named as executor often take on far more than the role actually requires. Some of this is generosity; some of it is uncertainty about where the line is. The line is worth knowing, because it matters for your own wellbeing.
An executor is responsible for administering the estate. That is it.
- You are not responsible for organising the funeral, although in practice you often do. The legal authority for funeral arrangements rests with the executor, but the work can be shared with whoever wants to help.
- You are not responsible for mediating family disputes about belongings. The Will governs distribution. If the Will is silent on a particular item and the family cannot agree, that is a family conversation, not an executor problem to solve alone.
- You are not responsible for paying estate debts out of your own pocket. The estate pays its own debts, in the order set by law. If the estate is insolvent, that is a legal matter to be handled formally.
- You are not responsible for being the emotional centre of the family's grief. Other family members will be grieving too. Your job is administrative.
- You are not responsible for moving fast. There is no race. Most estates take six to twelve months to fully settle. Some take longer.
A small piece of advice for first-time executors
Keep a notebook, paper or digital, where you write down every call you make, every document you send, and every reply you receive. You will not remember it otherwise. The estate touches dozens of agencies, each with their own reference numbers, and a record helps you avoid doing the same thing twice.
Ask for help when something is unclear. Most NZ lawyers will handle a one-off probate or a small estate question on a fixed fee. The Public Trust offers free advice to executors. IRD has dedicated estate staff.
And give yourself the same patience you would give anyone else doing this job for the first time. It is harder than people who have never done it realise. You do not need to do it perfectly. You just need to do it carefully, and finish.