Taking husband’s surname after his death

[0500hours]

My husband died in April
I always planned to take his name once the kids reached 18

But it’s too late now because he’s died, so I still have my maiden surname

I’ve enquired on gov.uk about an Enrolled Deed Poll because I read that’s what you require otherwise official documents won’t allow the name change such as bank, passport, NHS, etc

I’m legally no longer married now he’s died (insert a devastatingly unfair emoji) so can’t just take his surname anymore.

The actual Enrolled Deed Poll is so complicated.

Print off several forms, organise 2 people you know to come to an appointment at a solicitor to witness sign the paperwork, send it back with marriage and death certificate or whatever it was, inform the London Gazette (?) to publish the process, then wait up to 8 months backlog for the change ….

Unenrolled Deed Poll much easier but official places won’t accept this like bank, etc

Yet I’m reading threads on Mumsnet saying they just took a marriage or death certificate into their bank and simply told the bank they want to use a different surname now…..

Has anyone else changed their surname AFTER their spouse has died? I want to double barrel with hyphen mine and his surname.

Thankyou for any advice, there’s a lot of conflicting options online about this and I’m so confused now.

One of my sons has an unenrolled deed poll to change his surname to mine (he is from my wife's previous relationship but has never been acknowledged by his father). He has never had any problem getting it accepted by banks, the passport office, DVLA, NHS, etc.

Because of the slightly complicated name change I wanted to do, marriage cert wasn't suitable. I used an unenrolled deed poll with no issues.

otherwise official documents won’t allow the name change such as bank, passport, NHS, etc
Unenrolled Deed Poll much easier but official places won’t accept this like bank, etc
Totally not true. You're getting really bad advice here.

Just use the free deed poll at freedeedpoll.org.uk mine has been accepted everywhere, there are no issues as long as it's properly witnessed. I even used mine to get a China visa which is fairly stringent. You can change your name for any reason at all.

Also sorry for your loss. 💐

I did the same thing - well, more honestly, I just never got round to changing from my maiden name before he died. I just went in to the bank with my marriage cert, sent it off to DVLA, passport (my first one - I'd never had one before) and didn't run into any problems.

Oh and all agencies were aware my husband had since died.

I went into a random solicitor and asked for advice. They said bring 2 people in with me who have both agreed to be witnesses and they just sign the forms in front of the solicitor (pay a small fee of course, £5 per signature). They said an Enrolled or Unenrolled Deed Poll won’t be recognised unless it’s witnessed by a solicitor. Argghhh !!

Also in light of recent bereavement and because my husband didn’t have life insurance I’ve just quickly organised my own life insurance, and in the small print it says if there’s any errors in spellings a claim might not be paid out or significantly delayed , so my children could end up in admin difficulties just because I couldn’t figure out how to do this name
change correctly.

the life insurance is currently under my maiden name not my preferred new surname

Definitely not true. All you need is to use the wording given here and sign it in the presence of two witnesses, neither of whom has to be a solicitor. Even an enrolled deed poll does not have to be witnessed by a solicitor. Either you misunderstood or the solicitor gave incorrect advice.

And the small print on your life insurance is overstating the case. They cannot refuse a claim just because of a spelling mistake in a name unless it makes it unclear as to who is insured. As long as it is clear that the insurance is on your life, your children should not have any problems.

You can change your name to whatever you want for any reason.

I used a declaration I printed off the internet, got 2 friends to sign it and started hawking it round ally my utility providers, banks, driving licence and passport.

Didn't cost me a thing op. You don't need to get a deed poll and spend £££ in the process.

OK Thankyou everyone.

So all the forms I printed off from gov.uk that it said to post back to the Royal Courts of Justice for an Enrolled Deed Poll are a waste of time then it seems.

OK I’ll do what you have advised and try the 2-witness signatories version instead and see what my bank says.

I’ll update here later today or tomorrow afternoon with what they said.

thankyou everyone I appreciate you have taken time to reply

I just changed my name after my husband died using my marriage certificate. There were only 10 days between marriage and death. No one queried me using just the marriage certificate. Not solicitors, dvla, hmrc, pensions, benefits office, utilities or any financial institutions. That was 11 months ago.

Did you still have to find 2 witness signatures to take into the bank etc ?

thankyou

@0500hours no. No witness needed just my marriage certificate and photo id - which was in my maiden name.
I changed my bank details first, then everything else as they came up, eg a statement arrived or a renewal was needed, or a bill paying. Absolutely no one wanted or asked for anything other than either a loo at the original certificate or a hard copy or scanned copy of a certified copy of the original certificate. (my finance advisor happily signed several copies free of charge).