What to do after parent dies

[MyNameIsArthur]

Hi

My mum died last week and I don't know what to do with sorting out her affairs. Her death has been registered. My died died 4 years ago. She has a will. Straightforward in that everything divided equally between four son's including me. Myself and another brother are executors. Neither of us know what to do though.

Could I gave some advice please. Thank you

So sorry for your loss

Have you tried this website yet? www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once
We found this very useful after my df died, you just need to add the death certificate number, national insurance number, address etc for council tax. We went through a lot of paperwork to see what pension stuff he had, bank statements etc.
Contact the solicitor to get that ball rolling.
As for funeral directors, maybe look locally.
Hope it goes smoothly for you.

Sorry about your mum. If you Google,Gov.uk site they have a page telling you what to do when someone dies. Did your mum have a solicitor, if so,call them for advice. You can also call her banks bereavement line about any accounts she may have. Have you arranged a funeral yet, when you registered her death did they tell you about the tell us once service. Depending on the amount her estate is worth and if there is any property you may be able to deal with this yourselves.

Im sorry for your loss.

When my dad died my brother and I did everything along with step mum. We didn't want to pay a solicitor when it was a straight forward will.

I must admit I didn't get overly involved, my brother has done it before. He had this book here

Which he said was very helpful.

Iirc, we registered the death at the registry office and they will sort out stuff like stopping pensions and benefits there. Get more than one death certificate especially if more than one bank account to close.

Then you apply for probate, my brother had to go for a face to face appt. not sure what happened there but then probate is granted, I think you get a certificate.

Then you can write to banks, etc and close any accounts down and they will send cheques to the executors.

The Which guide to will and probate is useful, and distinguishes between England & Wales, and Scotland and NI.

I was my mum's executor about 18 months ago.
I'd agree with the advice to get some extra copies of the death certificate

I found it useful to write everything down that I needed to do, as my memory was really rubbish at the time.

Sorry to hear about your mum.

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes.

Her funeral is next week so we have all done stuff to organise it.

If she had a will, do you still have to apply for probate?

Also, would the banks freeze her bank accounts as there are still a few direct debits that would be useful to continue such as water, gas and electricity, until the house is sold.

Sorry about your mum.

My mum died 4 weeks ago so I’ve just been through this.

You will need to contact her bank and they will freeze the accounts. Whatever is left in there if it’s under £15k ish they will normally pay it straight to you (this surprised me). With the utilities for the house etc you will need to contact each one and let them know what’s happened and they will give you the option of setting up accounts in your own name - this is what I’ve done with electric/ water etc. Most of the companies just charge a very small amount to keep them open but not used as such.

Yep you will still need to get a grant of probate sorted if there is a will. A solicitor will help you with this. You can put the house on the market to sell but won’t be able to exchange contracts until the official grant of probate comes through.

This was helpful to me - www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/guide-to-probate/

I have a feeling you don't need probate if it's under a certain amount? But if there's a house involved you probably will.

Not sure about the utilities and bank account freezing. I guess you could just not tell the banks for a bit?

You'll need to tot up what her estate is worth - that determines whether you need to get probate or not, not the existence of a will.

I had to get probate for my mum's estate and she had a recent will.
I did it myself - there's a lot of help online and there's no mad rush to get it done (I think I did it very gradually over 6 months - I didn't want to spend any of her estate on solicitor's fees)

Like Fairylea said, some of the banks will give you the money in her accounts with very little paperwork to back it up - I was really surprised & shocked how easy it was....

I have a feeling you don't need probate if it's under a certain amount?

Something like £6000, it's really not much. (You need to check the details, though.)

Thank you everyone for all your helpful advice and kind words. I think I have a handle on it now although am sure it will be a learning curve along the way. Thank you