Lets take a very simple estate. Person dies on second death (therefore they received the whole inheritance tax exemptions from their spouse, and have a combined nil rate band of £1,000,000).
They have a small estate. A house, some savings, a few small shareholdings and interest bearing savings accounts.
On the date of death, most people are not thinking about contacting a solicitor. They will go and register the death in the few days post-death and start on the funeral.
Any good solicitor will advise to wait until the funeral has passed before undertaking any real administration steps. These days, that's taking 3-4 weeks. You're already 1 month post-death by the time you see the solicitor, realistically.
The solicitor will then need to see ID of all executors, a death cert etc. they will then begin preliminary investigation into the estate. Sorting through all the deceased's paperwork, writing to all institutions. The turnaround from banks etc. is running to be 4-6 weeks at this point. You need to obtain date of death figures (which for some reason, banks hate to provide!).
You need to notify the DWP, and work out all of the estate assets. By 2-2.5 months post death, you're beginning to get a picture of the estate.
You need to obtain house valuations, ensure all shareholdings are accounted for. Realistically, a professional executor will obtain a financial search. This can take another 8 weeks.
You need to prepare all IHT forms and send those off.
It takes 6 months, generally, to be in a position to apply for the grant. The current MINIMUM wait for a grant is 16 weeks. Realistically, when the IHT clearance etc. is factored in, it's a 24 week wait for the grant.
In the meantime, all that can really be done is checking if smaller bank accounts will release funds. You can forward funeral accounts and get those paid, but while you're waiting for the grant there is little that can be done.
While you're waiting, shareholding values are fluctuating. House prices may be increasing, interest will keep accruing. Banks will not update you, you have to wait.
It takes 5 working days once the grant has been approved for it to be received. At this point, you can begin marketing the property (and all the joys that come along with a property transaction). You now have a 10 month time period in which people can bring claims against the estate. If the executor was to distribute in this period and someone brings a claim, they will be personally liable for the cost of this claim, should it succeed.
You then write to all banks, obtain balances and calculate any taxes. You may need to file corrective IHT accounts if assets have changed value and you're owed money back. Income tax & CGT must be calculated.
Banks take months to come back, to release funds. Any insurances etc. can take months. Institutions are completely unhelpful. They will refuse to release funds multiple times, because they can.
It takes months (usually around 6) to get to the point of applying for HMRC clearance.
12 months post-death you apply and then you're in the hands of HMRC. It can take them months to come back. They do not answer calls. They do not co-operate in the slightest.
All the while, you have clients calling you up on a daily basis asking for an update, when there isn't one. Clients will tell you to chase HMRC, when it can take hours to get through to them. Are you going to pay me 6 hours worth of my hourly rate to be told they're awaiting processing of your forms, and it'll take as long as it takes? No, I didn't think so.
It's not as simple as apply, get, distribute. Professional executors are bound by many more rules than lay executors. You're asking solicitors to break their rules so you get your money sooner. Yes, it's frustrating for you that the money is tied up, but it's frustrating for us too when there is quite literally nothing we can do about it.