What is an estate?
An estate is everything a person owns at the date of death, less everything they owe. It includes property, savings, investments, business interests, vehicles, possessions and digital assets, minus mortgages, loans, funeral costs and other liabilities. Inheritance tax is charged on the net figure.
Gross estate is the total of the assets; net estate is what remains after liabilities. Inheritance tax is charged on the net figure, valued as at the date of death.
Not everything a person 'has' forms part of the estate for distribution. Property held as joint tenants passes automatically to the survivor. Life policies written in trust pass to the trust. Pension death benefits paid at scheme trustees' discretion sit outside it — though unused pension funds come within the scope of inheritance tax from April 2027.
This is why an estate is almost always larger, and more scattered, than the will alone would suggest — and why the inventory, not the drafting, is where administration stalls.