Dealing with the estate and taking care of financial affairs can add to the worry and stress at an already emotional and challenging time. If you are reaching out to us – because you've started to sort out the practical issues for a loved one who has passed away, you may have already started this process. We hope the following information is helpful and our staff will do their best to help you and be sensitive to your needs.

Registering the death

After someone passes away, their death must be registered. You can go to any register office, but if you use the one in the area where the person died, you'll receive the documents you'll need on the day. You can find your nearest register office in the phone book or online at: www.gov.uk/register-a-death . You may need to make an appointment.

 Points to remember

• In England and Wales, you need to register the death within five days. In Scotland, you have eight days to register.

• When registering, you'll need the doctor's certificate and possibly supporting information, such as a birth or marriage certificate. If in doubt, check with your local register office before attending.

• The register office will give you a Death Certificate. Most organisations, like banks, will need to see these certificates, so you may want to ask for extra copies.

Telling the government about the death

When someone dies, you usually have to tell several departments of local and central government, as well as other government agencies, so that they can update their records.

Tell Us Once

In most England and Wales areas, the Tell Us Once Service allows you to report a death to several government departments, agencies, and local authorities with only one contact. For example, Tell us Once will help you report the death to most of the offices that were paying benefits to the person who died and other government agencies such as the Passport Service and the DVLA. You must register the death first.

You can contact Tell Us Once either face-to-face through the local authority via a freephone number operated by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or online via the GOV.UK website. The Registrar will give you contact details when you register the death, including a reference number to use online.

You can find out more about Tell Us Once and where it operates on the GOV.UK website at www.gov.uk.

If the Tell Us Once service does not operate in your area, you will need to contact all the relevant organisations individually.

DWP Bereavement Service

In England and Wales, the DWP Bereavement Service allows you to report a death to the DWP in a single phone call, which will cover all the DWP benefits the person who died was getting. At the same time, the Bereavement Service can do a benefit check to find out if the next of kin can claim any benefits and take a claim for bereavement benefits or a funeral payment over the phone.

The contact details of the Bereavement Service are:

Telephone: 0800 731 0469

Textphone: 0800 731 0464

Monday to Friday, 8 am to 6 pm

Calls to this number are free.

If you have already reported the death to the Tell Us Once service, you don't need to tell the DWP Bereavement Service. But you can contact the DWP if you would like them to do a benefit check or help you claim bereavement benefits.

Telling Banks and other financial institutions

To tell banks and building societies, you may be able to use the UK Death Notification Service. This free service helps you tell several financial organisations about a death at the same time.

Find out which financial institutions are member members of the UK Death Notification Service.

Getting a copy of the will

You'll need to find the last known signed and witnessed version of the will. If you can't find a will at the deceased's home, it's a good idea to ask their solicitor, bank, or financial adviser if they have it. If a solicitor, bank, or financial adviser was involved in making the will, they should be able to confirm this for you.

A will usually name one or more executors, also known as personal representatives. They will be responsible for dealing with the administration of the deceased's estate.

Some organisations will need to see the will before settling any affairs.

What happens if there isn't a will?

If someone dies without making a will or you're unable to locate a signed will, they are said to have died 'intestate'.

The law on who will inherit the estate will vary depending on where the deceased lived and, in some circumstances, their religion.

In England and Wales, the Laws of Intestacy apply, and the person who will inherit the estate is the next of kin – usually their husband, wife, civil partner, or child/children.

To find out more about what to do if there is no will, visit the government website guidance. There, you'll find a simple online tool that considers the deceased person's situation and guides you to the correct information.

Arranging the funeral

The funeral can usually only take place after the death is registered. Most people use a funeral director, though you can arrange a funeral yourself.

Funeral directors

Choose a funeral director who's a member of either:

• National Association of Funeral Directors
• The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF)

These organisations have codes of practice - they must give you a price list when asked.

Some local councils run their own funeral services, for example, for non-religious burials. The British Humanist Association and Institute of Civil Funerals can also help with non-religious funerals.

Arranging the funeral yourself

Contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium Department of your local council to arrange a funeral yourself.

Funeral costs

Funeral costs can include:

• funeral director fees

• things the funeral director pays for on your behalf (called 'disbursements' or 'third-party costs'), for example, crematorium or cemetery fees, or a newspaper announcement about the death

• local authority burial or cremation fees

Funeral directors may list all these costs in their quote. You can get quotes from several funeral directors to see what is available within your budget.

Paying for a funeral

The funeral can be paid for:

from a scheme, the person had, for example, a pre-paid funeral plan or insurance policy

• by you, or other family members or friends

• with money from the person's estate (savings, for example) - getting access to this is called applying for a 'grant of representation' (sometimes called 'applying for probate')

You can apply for a Funeral Expenses Payment if you have difficulty paying for the funeral.

Dealing with the estate

Anyone responsible for dealing with the estate is known as a 'personal representative'.

• If there's a will, this is anyone named as an 'executor'.
• If there's no will, this is the immediate next of kin (refer to step 3 'Obtaining the Will')

What a personal representative has to do

Make an inventory of everything in the estate and work out the total value.

• Calculate and settle any inheritance tax and other tax liabilities.
• Apply for probate, if required.
• Collect all assets (such as shares and investments) and pay any debts, including mortgages and loans.
• Sell any property or investments that the will doesn't specifically transfer to someone else.
• Distribute the estate to the beneficiaries.

If the deceased only held accounts in joint names with someone else and probate isn't needed, the personal representative may be able to deal with everything in a few weeks. On the other hand, if probate is required or owned property, this process can take some time.

The personal representative's options

If you are the personal representative, you can decide whether you want to:

• Deal with the estate yourself; or

• Appoint a solicitor or specialist Probate service to do some or all of it for you.

Doing it yourself

If you choose to deal with the estate yourself, you may find yourself receiving and paying out large sums of money and having to keep track of a stream of transactions.

Grant of Probate

Grant of Probate or 'Probate' is a general term used to describe the process you may need to go through to apply for the legal right to deal with an estate.

The process involves applying to the Probate Registry, which formally confirms if a will is valid or, if there is no will, check that you are legally allowed to deal with the deceased's estate. 

Once they are satisfied, they'll issue a legal document called the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration (if there wasn't a will). This document formally names the person(s) responsible for dealing with the estate. In Scotland, both documents are known as 'Confirmation'.

Once the personal representative has received probate, they'll need to show the legal document to banks, building societies and other organisations to prove that they have authority to deal with any assets the deceased owned.

Is probate required?

Probate is not required where all the deceased assets are held jointly with another person and where they pass automatically to the joint owner.

Where the value of the deceased assets held in their sole name is more than £5,000, probate may be required. Most financial institutions have individual discretionary limits for releasing assets without seeing the legal document.

Note: Where the deceased owned a property in their sole name, probate will always be required before being sold or transferred.

How to apply for probate

To apply for probate yourself, you need to complete some application forms and send them to your local Probate Registry Office. You can download these online or order them from the Probate and Inheritance Tax Helpline on 0300 123 1072. 

Inheritance tax

Depending on the estate's value and who it is left to, you may have to pay inheritance tax. Generally, some or all of the inheritance tax must be paid before probate is granted. This is usually paid by the personal representative, using money from the estate. It may be possible for HSBC or another bank to pay this using money held in the deceased's accounts.

If there isn't enough money available in the account to pay the inheritance tax, you can get further information from the HMRC website. This includes the current limits and ways to pay under the following headings:

Introduction – Inheritance tax (For current limit)

• Paying HMRC – Paying your inheritance tax bill – How to pay (For ways to pay the bill)

Other taxes

The personal representative is also required to settle other taxes such as income tax and National Insurance for the person who has died. Contact HMRC.

For more information, visit the government website page about tax and benefits after death.