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Estate accounts template for England and Wales

Last checked 25 October 2026 against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk. General information, not legal or tax advice. England and Wales.

Estate accounts show the beneficiaries what the estate held when the person died, what came in and went out while it was being dealt with, and who received what. There’s no official form, but most follow the same layout.

The usual layout

Heading. The person’s name, date of death and last address, the executors’ names, and the period the accounts cover.
Capital account. Assets at their date-of-death values, less debts and funeral costs, giving the net estate at death. Then adjustments: gains or losses when things were sold or accounts closed, debts that settled for more or less than expected, and administration expenses such as the probate fee, valuations, legal fees and the Gazette notice. The result is the net capital for distribution.
Income account. Interest, dividends and rent that arose after the death, less any costs and tax paid on them.
Distribution account. Net capital plus net income, less what has been paid or handed over to each beneficiary: legacies, interim payments and final shares.
Reconciliation. How the balance is held: cash in the estate account, plus anything not yet sold or handed over, less debts not yet paid. If the accounts are right, this matches the distribution account’s balance exactly.
Approval. Space for the residuary beneficiaries to sign that they approve the accounts.

A worked example

Take a small estate: a current account worth £4,812.37 at death, an ISA worth £36,402.18, and a funeral bill of £4,385.

Capital account	£
Current account	4,812.37
Stocks and shares ISA	36,402.18
Less funeral	(4,385.00)
Net estate at death	36,829.55
Gain: current account closed at £4,815.02	2.65
Gain: ISA sold for £37,015.40	613.22
Less probate application fee	(300.00)
Net capital for distribution	37,145.42

If the account earned £41.27 of interest after the death, that goes in the income account, not the capital account. The distribution account then adds the two together and takes off what each beneficiary has received. The reconciliation checks it against the bank: £4,815.02 + £37,015.40 + £41.27 in, less £4,385 and £300 out, is £37,186.69 in cash, which is exactly the net capital plus the net income before anything has been paid out.

You can download our sample estate’s full accounts PDF from inside the app to see the whole layout.

Tips for accounts beneficiaries trust

Use the value at the date of death for every asset, and say which are estimates.
Show both the date-of-death value and what was actually received when something is sold.
Keep income separate from capital.
Include a schedule of every payment in and out, so anyone can follow the money.
Pensions and life policies paid straight to someone by the scheme aren’t part of the estate’s money, so they don’t go through these accounts, but it helps to list them separately.

Questions

Is there an official estate accounts form?

No. Neither the probate registry nor HMRC sets a format for estate accounts. The capital, income and distribution layout is a long-standing convention that beneficiaries and professionals will recognise.

When should estate accounts be prepared?

Usually once the assets have been collected, the debts and tax paid, and before the final distribution, so the residuary beneficiaries can see and approve how the figures were reached. Some executors share interim accounts along the way too.

Who gets a copy?

Commonly the residuary beneficiaries (the people sharing what’s left) and the other executors. A beneficiary who just receives a fixed legacy usually only needs confirmation it’s been paid.

Are estate accounts the same as the IHT400?

No. The IHT400 is HMRC’s Inheritance Tax account, about the estate’s value at death. Estate accounts are for the beneficiaries and cover the whole administration, including what happened after the death.

Keep the estate’s records in one place. Executor’s Cashbook holds the assets and debts, every payment in and out, the distributions and the deadlines, and turns them into estate accounts for the beneficiaries. It runs in your browser and your records stay on your device. Free for up to 10 items.

Open Executor’s Cashbook

Sources

More guides

This guide is general information about the rules in England and Wales, checked on 25 October 2026. It isn’t legal or tax advice, and rules change: check GOV.UK, or ask a solicitor or probate practitioner about your situation.