Mum has died. Questions.

[JaneExotic]

Mum has left money in her bank account and I have all her online banking details as well as her card.
Can I use it to pay her funeral costs? Or do I need to ‘freeze’ it and wait until it is part of her estate?
If it’s relevant, I have 4 siblings and we will inherit equally and would all prefer to pay this way.

Is there a will? Are you executor?
You must tell the bank, most banks will release enough money to pay for the funeral.

You have to tell the bank and they will generally allow you to release the funds for the funeral (that’s what happened when my mum died).

There is a will. We still don’t have death certificates though (mum died last Thursday) so I can’t do much at the minute.

You need to tell the bank and take a copy of her death certificate, they will freeze her account. You cannot use her card or use her account. The bank should release funds for her funeral, they may pay the funeral company directly but you will need to ask the bank and the funeral director. Are there any executors named and a Will. Sorry about your mum.

I did . Used her money to pay for the funeral, and told the bank later.

And yes I am one of the executors.

I would contact her banks bereavement department who will tell you what you need to do..

Most banks will release funds for the funeral.

Many funeral directors will allow you to pay later if you are waiting for the estate to be sorted out.

When my mum died the bank released the money for the funeral.
I was sole executor and sorted the whole thing out myself.
First step is to get the death cert, ask for several copies.
Then notify the banks and utilities.
Keep a record of all letters and phone calls.
Once you have a valuation of everything in the estate complete an IHT form online and then apply for probate.
All done online and very straightforward unless it's a very complicated estate.
I got probate within 6 weeks. The longest thing was selling the house but all banks had paid up within 3 months, some quicker.
I think they often release money without probate if there is less than £20k in the account.

Thank you every one.

The funeral director will usually wait to be paid out of the proceeds of the estate. They did when my DM died, anyway. I just sent their bill to the solicitor who had her will, and they dealt with it.

Sorry for your loss

Do you have power of attorney?

And I'm very sorry for your loss

@BIWI

Do you have power of attorney?

And I'm very sorry for your loss

I’m sorry for your loss 💐 Power of Attorney ceases on death, the bank will freeze her account. Probate took 5 months for my dad, 4 months for my mum, both died within months of each other last year. The bank paid for the funerals, any incidental expenses while we waited for probate.

Remember to inform utilities, Council Tax, house insurance etc, as soon as possible. The alarm people were the worst to deal with.

Doesn't a POA lapse on the death of the person?

But I agree, speak to her bank's bereavement department. Go to the branch and speak to someone in person if possible. Everyone I know of who has done this has said they were very kind and helpful.

All major institutions - utilities etc - have bereavement departments who can talk you through what you will need to do in each case.

When you are registering the death use the tell us once service and you don’t have to notify lots individually.
The bank will only cover the cost to the undertaker

So sorry for your loss.

My mum died last year so this is all still fresh in my memory. I Agree to the tell us once service which is very useful.

Don’t bother going in person to a branch, they just forward it to their bereavement team, so you may as well contact them directly.

You will also need to contact any pension etc. We went through a bank statement and used that as a check list on who else might need to know.

Ah, sorry - didn't realise that about POA.

I worked in a bank dealing with accounts of deceased customers. The funeral bill was the 1st debt on the estate. We froze the sole bank accounts once notified of the death but would pay the funeral account. We would have received funeral bills from the branch due to usually family or the Executor notifying the death and then being passed to our team. We would pay the account and send confirmation to the person on the account who appointed the funeral director. We also got them from solicitors who were administering the estate.

You shouldn't spend the money - lots of people do though. Are you her next of kin? If there is not a lot in the bank (sub £50k for most banks) the bank will release to you if you abs your siblings sign an indemnity. Don't be pushed into probate if you don't need it - but you will need if she owned a property. Equally they will pay over funeral costs directly. Sorry about your mum.

It's a long time since I've worked in a bank but iirc the bank need to be informed of the death and the account is then frozen. However, we would always pay the funeral director's bill on sight of the invoice.
You should not be operating the bank account using on line banking. The only person who should have o/l banking passwords is the account holder or POA and even POA ceases upon death.