As an executor of a will, one of your responsibilities is to deal with any claims against the deceased’s estate. To protect yourself from these claims, you should put a statutory advertisement in The Gazette and in a newspaper that’s local to the deceased.

Placing a deceased estates notice ensures that sufficient effort has been made to locate creditors before distributing the estate to beneficiaries. This protects the executor or trustee from being liable for any unidentified creditors.

If you don’t place a notice, and a creditor subsequently comes forward after the estate has been distributed, you may then have some personal liability for an unidentified debt. If the estate includes a property, a notice should also be placed in a newspaper that's local to the property, which you can do via The Gazette.

Before you begin: you must have obtained at least one of the following:

• grant of probate
• letter of administration
• death certificate

Place a deceased estates notice and newspaper advert in The Gazette.

Useful links

• Probate checklist
• Price list  
• Wills and probate resources