What to sort out with your bank accounts before you die (UK)

21 August 2026 · Inherit Vault

Registering a death sets off a surprising amount of admin automatically. None of it involves your bank, and that gap is where the first few weeks go.

Tell Us Once doesn't tell your bank

When you register a death, the registrar offers Tell Us Once. It's genuinely useful: one session and it updates HMRC, the DWP, the DVLA, the Passport Office and the local council. What it doesn't touch is anything commercial. No banks, no building societies, no insurers, no utilities. Those get contacted one by one, and until they are, the direct debits carry on. Estates routinely pay for broadband and a gym membership for months after the funeral.

The Death Notification Service saves a fortnight

Free, and barely known. You fill in one online form and it goes to a group of banks and building societies at once. It's run through UK Finance, so most of the big names are on it, though not every provider has signed up. Twenty minutes, instead of twenty separate phone calls and the hold music. Worth noting on your own list which of your providers are covered and which will need a letter.

Every bank sets its own probate threshold

There's no national rule here. Each bank picks the balance at which it will release money without a grant of probate, usually against a death certificate and a signed indemnity. Those limits sit somewhere between about £5,000 and £50,000 depending on who you bank with. So one bank can pay out in a fortnight while another won't budge until probate lands months later. If you're leaving a cash buffer for the funeral, that number matters more than the interest rate.

Old nominations can beat your will

Credit unions and friendly societies can hold a written nomination, a hangover from the Administration of Estates (Small Payments) Act 1965. Up to £5,000 goes straight to the named person and never touches the will. Plenty were signed decades ago and quietly forgotten, and they're still binding. If you've ever had that sort of account, check whose name is on it.

The list beats the logins

Your executor doesn't need your passwords, they need to know where to look. Which bank, roughly what's in it, which accounts are joint, which carry a nomination, and which one the direct debits run from. Five lines. That's the difference between closing things down in a fortnight and writing to institutions for six months on the off chance.

None of this needs a solicitor or a new will. It's one afternoon of writing down what you've got and where, kept somewhere your executor can actually reach when the time comes.

Leave your family a map, not a mystery.

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