What paperwork do wish you could have easily accessed when dealing with a deceased relative.

Lots of great information, thank you

Details of which pension providers to inform as pensions will cease on the day of death.
Insurance policies, share certificates, details of where the deeds are held (bank, solicitor), a typed list of all bank details but not pin numbers! You must not access the bank account of a deceased person anyway unless you are a joint account holder or have POA.

Details of funeral arrangements and what you want done with your remains.

Thanks for the link Anya I will take a look later and print it off when I can get to the pc.

There is something to be said for using a local solicitor. So many have closed down because people use online solicitors and some may be excellent but some are not and do not know you personally or have local knowledge eg when buying or selling a house.

As well as a file with deeds, wills etc, I also have a spreadsheet with all relevant details on it - all accounts, passwords etc etc. DH and AC have the password for when it is needed. After mom died I went through our filing cabinet and put notes on all sorts of things to help DH or AC in the case that I go first. The OP is right though, there is a lot of administration involved with death and I found some companies much more helpful and sympathetic than others. My dark sense of humour got it through. I was actually asked for my mom's current full address and postcode. I told them I presumed Heaven but didn't have a postcode! At the time I was actually talking to someone from the bereavement department of a company!!

My dad did this about ten years before he died, and it was invaluable. He had sorted out files for everything, investments, utilities, wills etc. He also listed his wishes re: his funeral and choice of music. Age concern produce a very helpful brochure that has everything in categories, and I've already started compiling my files.

It might also be useful for the person dealing with your estate to know that they can put a freeze on utility bills. Simply ask for the relevant Probate Office for the company. Each Utility I dealt with they were exceptionally helpful.

With regard to inappropriate questions, Liverpool Victoria asked if my ML's mother was still alive. I had already given them MiLs Dob as 1914. Also i organised Change of house insurance to Cover the fact that the house would be empty until probateI was granted . I was told that if circumstances change My step-father could have the mail back to his address. I was so tempted to ask if she meant a resurrection.

If possible, use a local solicitor, where you can go into an office and have a face to face conversation with someone.
Many solicitors will do home visits at no extra cost if you are unable to get to their office.
All of our 'stuff' is sorted out, passwords, account numbers, house deeds, wills etc, and kept in a wall safe. It has double protection, key and seperate keypad, and DS has a record of pin number and his own key.
Also my DM and I had a joint bank account for the last eight years of her life, it made it easier for me to do her shopping, and when she died, the account automatically transferred to me, saving lots of to-ing and fro-ing with the bank. The joint account was only practical because I'm an only child, multiple siblings would complicate it.

My very dear friend died last week . He had advanced bowel cancer for seven years and struggled through many rounds of chemo and treatments . Before Christmas he was told that they had come to the end and there was no more to do . He was in a way relieved and he had an amazing few months with his family and friends .It was his 70th birthday soon after he was told and had a memorable party where he gave a speech which left us all in bits! He gave a number of us a gift of one of his antique collection of silver so he could do it personally .. He spent his last few weeks planning his simple humanist funeral, and the gathering afterwards. He also organised all the paperwork, closing down accounts, and leaving all the contact details for his pensions etc. Even his death was as he wished - at home till the last but to the hospice to die peacefully . We all miss him terribly but his planning and actions made it so much easier for his wife and family . I have vowed to do the same and am starting Monday with sorting out the paperwork and chucking out so much out of date stuff .

I have all my personal and financial info on my laptop and my elder daughter has a regularly updated copy. I have also chosen a solicitor as executor. I would strongly advocate not making children executors as they then have to deal with loads of bureaucracy as well as coming to terms with a bereavement. I know fees are involved but seeing my daughter struggling with executing her father's estate as well as managing her own busy life was difficult. I gave all the help I could but as he and I were divorced my powers were limited.

We paid for 6 death certificates when Dad passed but the hold up with various pensions was the fact that my step mom survived him and everyone wanted an original wedding certificate! Still ongoing from mid January ......

PS As well as giving daughters details of type of funeral I would like. So much less decision making for those left behind.

Susie, your friend's final months and death sound amazing. How wonderful, both for him and those he left behind. I'm sorry for your loss, and wish you well in your planning.

Age uk do a very good form that you just fill in with details of bank accounts, utility bills, mobile phone providers. Also have funeral details i.e. Undertakers, order of service, venue for the 'wake' and where we want our ashes placing. Just done health care and finance Everlasting powers of attorney. Wills copies in a sealed envelope with the Executors, special requests and a special letter from heaven for the grandchildren.
It's not nice thinking about ones demise but at least this way everyone is prepared and will hopefully take some pressure of those left with the tasks.

I have sorted out financial documents into folders marked "Do not throw away, worth money" and "Throw away, dies with me". This saves having to trawl through unnecessary paperwork to find out if something is valuable and your exec can see instantly important things to keep. Also a note about organ donation so everyone is clear.Get a good few copies of death certificate as one is never enough.

Yes, we keep everything in one place too. We had enormous difficulty sorting out my late MIL's papers as she was claiming additional benefits from the DWP when she wasn't entitled to them. They wanted seven (!!!) years worth of bank statements to track back and reclaim from the estate, but the bank only held five.

She also hid savings from the family totalling more than 40k, which I found hidden in two accounts and is what started the investigation. It took us eighteen months to sort out probate in the end, which was very stressful.

Because of this we are ultra careful and have made sure everything is in order: all our savings accounts, Will, house deeds, birth certificates, details of the bills we pay, pensions and letters from government departments are all in the safe and our son knows the whereabouts of all keys and combinations.

If I recall correctly from my mother's death a couple of yrs ago, you can do the Tell Us Once thing when registering a death.
Also, well worth getting a dozen or more copies of the death cert while you're there. That is, unless the person's affairs were extremely simple.

A friend who was widowed not long ago had a nightmare of paperwork to deal with - (she and my dh, who was an executor) since her Dh had money stashed in so many places and had been so secretive about his affairs that it was necessary to go through literally carloads of paper (he'd hardly touched or filed anything for years and wouldn't let anyone else do it) in order to find out what there was.

Pre dementia, my mother had put all relevant paperwork/info in a briefcase, and told us where it was. So once we had to take over her finances, because she was no longer able to manage them, it was relatively simple.

Before Dh and I went on a long haul holiday some years ago I made out a sheet for dds, telling them what there was and where, in case anything dire happened to the pair of us. But things have changed since then - I need to do a new version!

Dh has been an executor several times now, and it can be an awful lot of work and hassle. I'm sure we'd all be grateful to anyone who made it that bit easier.

I love your 'letter from heaven' Rosie!
My mother had had advanced dementia for ages when she died at 97, so it was really lovely to find a 'when I'm gone' letter to us all, written before she developed the horrible disease. It was like having her back again, as she was before.
I intend to do the same before I'm too much older!

rosie21 could you specify which form you were referring to from Age UK ? there's so much on their website . what you talked of sounded really useful, but I can't work out which is the one you meant .

I read a Which report on Funeral Plans. As someone said, they don't always cover the cost. When my mother died the bank allowed me to pay for the funeral out of her account with sight of the bill. Very helpful. I have set up a monthly joint account with my most sensible daughter and am paying into it. 2% and she has authority to use it as needed when the time comes.

When MIL died last year and I registered her death the registrar (at the hospital) gave me the forms for Tell us Once and logged on for me and gave me a reference number so it was very straightforward when I logged on to the site at home. Her estate was sorted out by the solicitor because there was a trust fund from her late husband. A bit slow but painless.

We knew it would be a small funeral and I shopped around. We had the small chapel at the crematorium, and it came to £999.99. The chaplain who took the service didn't charge - she was a friend of my MIL and also a beneficiary. Friends came back here and I did the catering. Just the ashes to bury now.

I with cornergran on this one, everything in one place and a schedule containing all details. Once you have got it done, it doesn't take long at all to update any changed details.
I have to say, I'm a bit obsessed with having things sorted. Although I have 2 daughters, one lives away so it's quite lightly that my youngest will be left to sort everything when I pop off. I have to make everything as easy as possible for her.

Even quite likely not lightly!

Just for information, not all house ownerships are logged with the Land Registry. We have had a problem with this recently. It came about as the council were going to put in a wheelchair ramp to our house for our grandson. The council had applied to the Land Registry to confirm our ownership.

First problem our house was not registered with them.

After many hours on the phone with Barclays we have finally received our deeds but we are still not registered with the Land Registry. I can see this is going to be an ongoing project so we have everything in order should anything happen to us.

This is one of the best and most useful posts I have read on gransnet. I had not heard of TELL IT ONCE.
Can someone tell me please, is it necessary to have leading power of attorney or is it another way for solicitors to make money?

IMO it's very useful to have a lasting power of attorney. You don't need to go anywhere near a solicitor to draw one up. You can easily do it yourself as long as you are a methodical sort of person, you do have to pay £110 per LPA to the Office of the Public Guardian to register them. There are two kinds - one for money and one for health and welfare. Get both