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

My thanks to Flosieturner,Emily Harburn and Legs55. Very useful infirmation all round. I intend to follow all the instructions and advice you gave given me and others. Val

Thanks for the advice about the AgeUK booklet. We have sent off for two of them.

This is slightly off the subject and apologies if it has been mentioned before but I wonder if anyone heard Ed Sheeran on the One Show singing his song called Supermarket Flowers, I can see that being high on the list of funeral songs.

My DH died 4 years ago after a short terminal illness. Luckily we had joint Bank Account & Savings Account, only his ISA had to be closed, Banks only need to see Death Certificate as they scan it onto their system.

I had already changed all Utility Bills into my name many years before as I dealt with all the finances so no problem there. Car was in his name but he had not driven for many months so I had changed main driver on Insurance to myself (DD has been a named driver for years). I had difficulty persuading my DH to sign V5 to change car ownership, he couldn't see why although he knew he was dying, I explained as Insurance was now in my name car should be, he signed, that did save me hassle with DVLA.

Every Pension etc will require a copy of Death Certificate so have a look & see how many will be required, saves waiting for certs to be returned. Do it once only informs Government Depts, eg State Pension.

I need to update my Will, I have my copy but original is held by Solicitors in Somerset & I now live in Devon, also now I'm widowed & have a new property & another DGS due in May, a Revision is due.
I also intend to do LPAs soon.

Unless Finances are complicated I would not use Solicitors as Executors, they can charge hefty fees which come out of the Estate before you receive any Legacy. If there is Property to be sold they will deal with that also. My DD is my Executrix & we are my DM's, Probate can be dealt with by any-one (I worked for Civil Service).

I keep my up to date papers in an expanding folder so everything is on hand

Despite my experiences detailed up thread, my OH would not get round to completing his LPA. I got quite upset about it and one day, after reading an article in the paper I put this to him.

"If you had a stroke and could not communicate or had dementia how could I access your savings or sell the house to move closer to the kids". He said "well you just.........
I said "no I don't just, because there is no PoA in place for me to do it and I think it is really selfish. I have protected you but you have not done the same for me"

This sounded really hard but it spurred him to do it.

Age UK have a life book which might help
www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/home-safety-and-security/lifebook/

I don't know how to do links .Hopefully someone can tell me. Google ,Office of public guardian LPA and it will take you to the site.

We made a will several years ago reading this thread made me realise I need to make sure company still exists, and I never thought about passwords . Can someone explain how I do a spreadsheet which is protected I'm not very computer savvy ?

Flossieturner, can you please provide the link to do the lasting power of attorney on line. Thank you.

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

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?

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.

Even quite likely not lightly!

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.

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 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.

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 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 ......