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

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.

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 I have vowed to do the same and am starting Monday with sorting out the paperwork and chucking out so much out of date stuff .

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

Lots of great information, thank you

Those thinking of updating their Wills. We have just done ours by phone with Marlow Wills, it has a very high satisfaction rating . The lady was very helpful, telling us about things we had not considered

In my humble opinion, everyone should complete PoA. It is so simple to do on line these days and offers such a lot of Protection. If anyone thinks £110 is unaffordable, there is a reduced fee for those on low income. The alternative is Court of Protection, much higher fees and can take up to a year, plus there is an annual fee to pay and interviews to attend.

I have had a lot of experience lately with the advantages of having PoA for mother and step-father. My SIL on the other-hand, had a breakdown caused by stress when her mum went into care. She had refused to sign a PoA, the LA were insisting that SIL paid full rent for her sheltered accommodation and banks were refusing to release money.

I am happy to answer any questions, but my knowledge is based on personal experience not as a professional.

I have a file with see through sleeves. in the first sleeve is a summary of all the money I have with interest rate, date bond expires etc. This is updated about three times a year.
Behind and in the correct order, are the bond certificates, pass books etc.

There is a page listing things in the house which could be of some value so they don't just get chucked out.

Before the old 'Enduring Power of Attorney' was stopped, I filled one in and gave it to my daughter. It would have to be registered if she needed to use it.

I think this is a good thread to start OP as we can all learn from each other.

I have a book file with see through pages. I have an index in the front and have quite a few items which have already been discussed. In addition I have both our pension details, spouses are sometimes entitled to 50% of Company/personal pensions. Plus insurance details.
Also a list for each of us who to contact regarding bills, credit and debit cards etc etc.
Think it's important as when someone dies, grief can be overpowering and not knowing where to look for documentation would make it much harder.

Thanks for starting this thread Flossieturner, it has been very useful. Can someone tell me about Power of Attorney and when or if I need to appoint one and how is this done.

Whereas I bought too many when DH died. I went to see a personal advisor at my bank and she only needed sight of the death certificate - in fact she was a wonderful help and dealt with a lot of things for me (no charge!).

BTW the Tell us Once information is usually supplied by the Registrar when you register the death, and I think the hospital where DH died also had a leaflet about it.

Coincidentally, this topic came up at Geek House this morning. I've told my OH and DS that I will set them up as emergency contacts on my password manager (the application that holds all my encrypted passwords for my online life). This means that, in the event of my death, they can request access to my password manager. They can't see my passwords unless they request access. When they request access, I get an email telling me this has happened. If I am OK (it was a false alarm), I can refuse their access, if I'm not and I don't reply to the email within the number of days I specify, they get read only access to my passwords. It seems a good plan because I would only give this information to family I trust in the event of my death anyway. My master password is never written down either.

The only other thing I would add to the topic for discussion is that I didn't get enough certified copies of my mother's death certificates. I had to wait for some to be returned before making further notifications.

Getting hold of grave deeds is a sticky one. We somehow managed to bury my sister in the family grave (it's a 4-seater but only my father was down there) no trouble.....BUT when we wanted to have a grave stone erected that was a different matter and we had to prove ownership of the grave.

You'd have thought it would be the other way round wouldn't you?

Luckily after a thorough search of my sisters 'paperwork' we found the 'lost' original deeds. I'd suggest things like this are lodged with solicitors along with Wills and LPAs.

I think that is what he ended up doing Maggiemaybe. Doing it through the Land Registry.

This is how to get your deeds, GrandmaMoira

www.gov.uk/get-information-about-property-and-land/copies-of-deeds

I don't think you need the paper deeds these days. All the details of ownership are lodged with the Land Registry and you can apply online for documents. Our local history society has been appealing for people to let them have any interesting original deeds instead of throwing them out, which is what is happening.

I must say I feel happier having them tucked away in my filing cabinet!

An interesting thread - and one that I'm blaming for the fact that I'm still in my dressing gown It led us to discussing our wills and the fact that we need to change the executor details, then to me digging out the copy wills to set this in motion. To discovering that the practice has closed down , trying to find out without success what has happened to it, working out who to contact about the "lost" original wills (the Solicitors Regulation Authority, in case anyone else is in the same boat), and firing off an email to them.

I have a schedule of policy and account details that I emailed to all our DC a couple of years ago. I might just spend this afternoon updating it, but I guess I'd better have a quick shower and get dressed first!

That link to Tell Us Once was really useful, Anya. I'd never heard of it but will be adding it to the schedule

There's useful information here and I know I need to sort this out. I'd not heard of Tell us Once. Lynnbo - in my experience with relatives who have died, banks are slow to transfer the money so you were lucky. I have wondered about telling family how to access online accounts. My other paperwork is all together though not very organised. I'm not sure how to get hold of the deeds to my house. I was hoping that when I move (hopefully this year) a solicitor will help me with this.

Details of all pensions being paid

Just noticed you mentioned deeds op

Deeds to the house!
A relative had this problem. His mum and dad had kindly put everything ready.
But no deeds!
And they were never located! The bank didnt have them, the solicitors didnt have them etc.

Tell us once is very limited I found, I used it but was surprised by how little they actually did.
The pre paid funeral plan was difficult to locate, solicitor had it and it took ages to come, I chose the wrong funeral director (one not on the list) and had to pay a massive top up fee.
The National Insurance Number is used often for identification. But most of all the Power of Attorney must have been registered with a lot of agencies.