Guides

After a death: guidance for the United Kingdom

Use the country guidance in SecureKeep to work through what usually needs doing in the UK, with the official page behind each point.

Takes about 10 minutes · Checked on SecureKeep 3.4.0 for iPhone and Android

  1. Open the guidance and choose your country

    Open Settings and tap Guidance for your executor. Check that the top says Guidance for: United Kingdom. If it doesn't, tap Change.

  2. Register the death in the right nation

    Open Register the death. The time limits differ by nation, so each item carries a nation tag and a Time limit flag: England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Read only the one that applies.

  3. Report it once, then tell the rest yourself

    Open Tell Us Once. It reports the death to several government services at once, and the reference should be used within 28 days. It doesn't cover banks, mortgage providers, insurers, utilities, landlords or private and workplace pensions, so contact those separately.

  4. Tell the banks

    Open Banks and building societies. The Death Notification Service is free and tells a number of member banks and building societies at once. Members may ask for a death certificate.

  5. Look at probate and tax on the estate

    Open Probate and Inheritance Tax. England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own process, and each item says which. If Inheritance Tax is owed, the page flags the one-year and six-month limits.

  6. Check power of attorney and pensions

    Open Power of attorney and Pensions. The Power of attorney item links to the hospital-stay sections of the emergency card, for someone who's alive but can't decide for themselves. The Pension Tracing Service finds contact details for a scheme, though it can't say whether a pension exists.

Good to know

  • General guidance, not legal advice. Check with the organisation or a lawyer.

If it doesn't work

The page shows a different country
Tap Change at the top and pick United Kingdom.
I can't tell which nation's rule applies
Each registration and probate item carries a nation tag. Use the one for where the person died or lived, and ask the register office if you're unsure.
A source link doesn't open
Government pages move. Try again later, or search the publisher's name and the page title. Tell us if a link has gone stale.

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