A lesson there for everyone.
Make a will. Name an executor.
I don't think it makes much difference if things are uncontested. I heard that
at the moment they take 2 months to look at anything, and that's consistent with them telling me I hadn't completed the form at 2 months (I'd aborted and started again which caused that). I got the L of A a week later.
But yeah, making a will is a good idea. If it's just a reciprocal between sp[ouses, you can download a form on which you just put your name and address, and get two people (anyone) to sign as witnesses.
As for getting solicitors and bank managers to declare documents to be genuine copies, I think it must have relaxed. WHen I read this:
Certify a document as a true copy of the original by getting it signed and dated by a professional person, like a solicitor
www.gov.uk
"teacher" jumped off the page, as more accessible than the rest.
I need a dozen or so, so I can photocopy with the vital words on the paper the document is copied onto, and teech just has to sign and date it.
A couple of the banks initially said I'd need a Notary or the like to certify, but as soon as I quoted that document, they said "oh yes".
Generall the banks, and HMRC, have a bereavement department - all have been very easy to deal with.
Mother died too, just after, in her "home". Aged 90 something. A Power or Attorney was set up last century. The regs changes a bit in 2007 when the EPA - Enduring or Durable Power of A came in. If you only have the older document, you can hit snags with some building societies, who only have systems which expect the later one.
If you try to get a current one, you can hit problems of identity. They ask for driving licenses and passports which oldies don't have. I contacted the solicitor who drew up the orginal in the 90's, who was rightly annoyed that the banks etc won't accept the old version.
Another wrinkle surrounds the saving /investments held by the deceased.
I had access to my wife's accounts so moved some around in the last couple of days. A couple of others, I assumed would just be sold to cash, but they weren't. Some offered to sell before I got the documents to them. Not knowing, I put some in 10% p.a. type funds which are safe enough.
She'd bought HSBC, a former employer, and there's a lump of those still ticking along, now 12% up.
Two other things I didn't know..
If the dead person had an ISA, it doesn't have to be sold, it can be transferred to an ISA in your name
If they had a SIPP and were under 75 years of age, the capital simply comes out untaxed. That one saved me a lot, I was expecting to have to take it out annually in slices to be under the tax thresholds - if possible.
AI is very good with financial planning Grok or ChatGPT, IMO.
You can say eg
What pension you have coming in
what you have in ISAs
what you have in non ISAs
Your property value(s)
Your monthly costs.
And a % that you expect your investments to beat inflation by. Default for that is 4% (!)
Then you can ask complicated questions such as if I spend xxxx for the next 5 years then sell the property for yyyy and live in a retirement village at zzzz, when will I run out of money?
Or, if I live another 15 years what can I spend each year, etc.
With the stock market the way it is, one won't run out.
Edit
I called HMRC today, it had to be the bereavement line.
Starting "I'm not dead" ,.... humble apologies and I have another month to fill in the form.
