A death part-way through an estate is the one turn of events probate paperwork handles least gracefully. What happens next depends almost entirely on one fact: whether the person who died had already been granted probate.
The question that decides everything: had the grant been issued?
Everything turns on whether the executor had already been granted probate. The Administration of Estates Act carries the role forward automatically once, and only once, an executor has proved the will. If they died before that point, the estate is left unrepresented, and somebody has to apply from the beginning.
Get that fact straight before doing anything else. The grant is a document with a date on it, and the Probate Registry’s record settles the question (GOV.UK, Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales), checked 14 September 2026).
If the grant had been issued: the chain of representation
Your executor’s own executor takes over the original estate, provided they prove your executor’s will. The Act says the executor of a sole or last surviving executor is the executor of the original testator, with the same rights over that estate, so no separate grant for it is needed (AEA 1925, section 7, checked 1 November 2026).
HMRC’s manual puts the same rule in working terms: a chain of representation arises where all the executors die before completing the administration of the estate (HMRC IHTM05114, checked 1 November 2026).
Two limits matter. The chain runs only through an executor who actually proved the will, so an executor who renounced or never applied is not part of it. And the chain is broken by an intestacy, by a failure to appoint an executor, or by a failure to obtain probate (Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 7, checked 1 November 2026).
That second limit has a consequence families miss: an administrator is never part of a chain. Where the person who died had letters of administration rather than probate, nothing passes to their own executor, however tidy that would be.
When the chain breaks: a grant de bonis non
Where the chain breaks, part of the estate is left unadministered and nobody holds authority over it. The answer is a second grant, called administration de bonis non, meaning concerning goods not administered. It is made to whoever now has the right to apply, and it reaches only the part still outstanding.
HMRC’s manual says it is needed on the death of the sole or last surviving administrator where part of the estate is still unadministered, on the death of the sole or last surviving executor where the chain of representation is broken and part of the estate remains unadministered, or where that person becomes mentally incapable. The application is made on form Cap A5C (HMRC IHTM05102, checked 1 November 2026).
Anything already transferred stays transferred. The new grant deals with what is left, which is why keeping a clear record of what was done before the death saves the next person weeks.
If the executor died before applying at all
Nothing carries over, because the chain runs only through an executor who proved the will. If the will names another executor who is willing to act, that person applies alone. If it names nobody else, the right to apply passes down a fixed order of priority set by the probate rules, starting with the people who benefit under the will.
The top of that list is the executor, then any residuary beneficiary holding on trust for somebody else, then any other residuary beneficiary, with further categories below them, including a person entitled to share in residue the will did not dispose of (Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, rule 20, checked 1 November 2026).
In practice that usually means the people inheriting the bulk of the estate apply for letters of administration with the will annexed. The will still governs who gets what. What has changed is only who does the work.
One of several executors dies
The survivors carry on. Where a will appoints two or more executors and one of them dies, the others apply or continue without needing a replacement, and what the beneficiaries receive is unaffected. Bring the death certificate to the application, so the registry can see why a named executor is not part of it.
Where an executor has not applied but has had power reserved to them, they keep the right to take their own grant later. The rules require notice of the application to be given to the executors to whom power is to be reserved (Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, rule 27, checked 1 November 2026). If that person then dies, the reserved right dies with them, and the acting executors carry on as before.
If a beneficiary dies before the money is paid out
Their share does not disappear, and it does not go back into the pot for the others. A gift to somebody who outlived the person who died has already taken effect, so it passes into that beneficiary’s own estate, and their executors deal with it under their own will. The estate still has to pay it.
The timing is what matters, and it cuts the other way if the beneficiary died first. A gift to a beneficiary who dies before the person making the will usually fails, unless the will provides a substitute. There is one statutory rescue: where the gift was to the testator’s own child or descendant who died first leaving children alive at the testator’s death, the gift takes effect in favour of those children instead, unless the will shows a contrary intention (Wills Act 1837, section 33, checked 1 November 2026).
Many wills also carry a survivorship clause, requiring a beneficiary to outlive the testator by a set period, often 28 days, before the gift takes effect. That is a matter of what the will says rather than a rule of law, so read the clause itself before assuming a short survival counts.
What this means for the paperwork in front of you
Four documents answer most of it: the will, the grant if one was issued, the death certificates, and a list of what has already been transferred. With those in hand, the route is usually clear, and the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre can give guidance on how to apply (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: what is probate, checked 1 November 2026).
Two practical points are worth holding on to. A delay here is not the same as an executor refusing to act, which has its own remedies covered in when an executor delays. And an estate that has lost its executor still has deadlines running, including Inheritance Tax, covered in the Inheritance Tax forms.
Scotland deals with the same problem through confirmation rather than probate, and the court appoints an executor-dative where no executor is able to act, so nothing on this page transfers across the border unchecked.