Paying for funeral costs from the estate, how does this work?

I am sorry you are having to deal with your imminent loss.

Natwest paid directly for my mum's funeral from her account: the funeral director costs, the crematorium fees, the celebrant and flowers, plus - I believe - the wake (a tapas place, so not necessarily a typical venue). They kept her account open so I could pay in money, while they dealt with the bills above directly. They may not have been my favourite bank, but for this, they really stepped up.

It's a few years ago now but I do recall the bank paid the invoice for the wake as well as the undertaker. It was at a pub though, not sure if they would advance cash if you were doing the catering yourself.

They’ll do this for funeral expenses but what about expenses for the wake?

There will also be other bills. Although you are able to cancel state pension it is very likely that they will overpay a little and come to you for payment back as Executor. You don’t need to pay until estate is granted probate but I found it much easier to just pay the overpay and it was done out of the lump sum I took out.

You don't need to do this. Banks and funeral directors have been through this lots of times and can advise. Banks will generally release funds when funeral director sends a bill

@Mum5net I did probate for a relative when their parent died. I had no experience. It took 3 months, even in these times, with the covid backlog. I suppose it depends what needs doing. A simple house sale and distributing a bit of cash where there are no disputes can be quite quick.

If you contact the deceaseds bank where the money is held they can pay the funeral directly to the funeral directors (can do bank transfer) they’ll just need to see the death certificate and the funeral bill.
You can then deal with the rest of the estate when you feel ready.
But just be advised they may block the deceaseds accounts and therefore no direct debits etc will be paid.

Banks do release funeral funds. I know an example from earlier this year.

I withdrew £12k from parents account just before death which we knew was coming in the next 24 hrs. I was beneficiary along with siblings in will and it was very very useful. Kept records but siblings weren’t that interested. As long as I did all the paperwork it was fine by them!

Bank won’t know he has died until you tell them and I did think they might query the withdrawal on his date of death but it was fine. Could pay for their funeral, overpayments of private and state pension and the accountants fee out of the £12k.

Would definitely do this again.

Sorry for your imminent loss.

Banks will pay funeral costs with death certificate and funeral invoice usually.

Being practical get a few copies of the death certificate as you may need to send off copies to different banks/organisations and if you only have one it can be very time consuming.

Sorry for your situation, OP.
My DSis and I had Guardianship rather than POA so couldn’t withdraw a small ‘float’ to deal with the death / on going house maintenance expenses in advance. However, as PP have indicated it can take nine months to a year for financials to be settled and bills do need paying.
If we hadn’t have been under Guardianship. Rules I would have withdrawn a contingency float before death from the parent’s account and discussed with all siblings first. Then I’d keep meticulous details of how it is spent… extra copies of death certificate, gratuity to funeral director, window cleaning at property, service charge / grass cutting at property… Seven months down the road, DM’s house cannot be sold and needs external painting

@CMOTDibbler Thanks!

I would also echo what pps have said about funeral directors - our local one is frankly amazing and couldn't do enough for me. I'd maybe read a few google reviews to see if there's anyone locally that's getting great feedback, mentally make that decision, then mentally file it away. They do absolutely know their stuff and will take you through every step.

@MereDintofPandiculation you can do it by post . You'll need the form which you fill in with the FDs bank details etc and then send it with the death certificate to the bereavement team.

Can this be done by telephone banking? We don’t have a bank branch within an hour’s journey.

This sounds sensible

Lloyds bank really helpful paid funeral and wake bills straight after the funeral, even though mums account was frozen. POA disappears on death.
also, get lots of copies of the death certificate- lots of places will want a copy.
and 🌺🌺.

I lost both parents within a week in April.
Chose a family run undertakers on advice from our vicar who said they would arrange everything.. and they did.

Bill went directly to their bank whose bereavement team paid it all. No deposit at all just both death certificates. They also settled the wake. (This has of course got to be 'reasonable' - so know excess booze just has to give an idea of numbers)

I don't think it matters the type of account. They can pay because legally the first call on the estate is for funeral expenses. Natwest settled directly with the funeral director for my dad.

My dads bank agreed to pay funeral costs but there was a time lag where co op asked for a deposit before this was sorted.And we had other expenses re wake etc. I had transferred some money to my account pre death with my siblings agreement.

I just sent the funeral invoice to the bank and they paid it directly. There was an online page where I uploaded it. I then emailed the funeral director informing them, and they sorted it out between them. Next I heard was an email from the funeral director confirming payment.

My mum just sent the bill on to the solicitor who was executor.

When my Mum died last year, the funeral director sent his invoice directly to the bank (Santander) which paid it from her account. We knew the bank accounts would be frozen as soon as we told them that she had died and as her house was rented out, we decided to transfer some of her money into an old bank account of mine that was not in regular use to cover house expenses or other unexpected costs. We had POA so we’re able to do the transfer a few days before she died and it’s a good job we did as it took us nine months to sort out probate due to delays with some tax returns and in that time we did some repairs to the rented house. Even though the rental income continued to go into Mums frozen bank account, we were not able to access it to pay bills, although existing direct debits for insurance etc were covered.

I know what we did was strictly dodgy but my siblings trusted me implicitly to manage the “slush” fund and I kept all receipts and bank statements. It saved us having to use our own money to pay for a number of things. Once mums estate is finally wound up and funds distributed, I will close the account and share the balance with my siblings.

There is no inheritance tax to pay so there is no question of us trying to hide money.