Probate Question - Particularly any Solicitors around

[chocaholic73]

Could anyone tell me - are there any problems with UK financial institutions accepting Death Certificates which have been certified in other countries? Is there a reliable source of online information covering this area?

It depends on the country. If its English speaking/Commonwealth it should be fine. Otherwise you may need it translated/certified by a solicitor with relevant skills.

My husband's death certificate is in german and he was german and we lived in Germany. I had no problems in UK.

This link might be helpful - I've never tried to use a foreign death certificate to administer an English estate personally, but it seems you can get a special document that is an English translation of the certificate by registering the death with the British Embassy, so that's worth looking at if you have any difficulty getting anyone to accept the certificate.

In my experience, an institution that won't accept a doc you send to them will specify what they require from you - it may be that they ask for the certificate to be Notarised or something, but I would send the foreign certificate and let them query it if they wish to. Sometimes banks have odd internal processes and rules and quite often they don't really know what they want or need or why they want or need it...