What to do when someone close to you dies

The Government’s Register a death page is a good place to find everything you need to know including who can register the death and what they’ll need to do. Once you’ve registered the death, you’ll be given:

• a death certificate, and
• a certificate for burial or cremation.

It’s a good idea to ask for extra copies of the death certificate, as many organisations will need to see an original version (there can be a fee for this).

If you don’t yet have the death certificate and want to safeguard the account and stop marketing, you can let us know by making an appointment in your nearest branch, by phone, by completing our Notification of Death form or by writing to us. 

• Their full name, date of birth and the date of death
• The personal representative’s name and address (if you know this). This tells us who to write to and who we can give information to.

• If we know who the personal representative is, then we'll write to them within 5 working days to let them know what the next steps are. If this information is not provided we will take reasonable steps to identify the personal representative so that we can get in touch.
• We will restrict any withdrawals on sole accounts to safeguard them.
• We will suppress any marketing (please note there may be occasions when marketing material continues to arrive because is was already prepared for mailing, but this should only be for a short period of time).

Once you have the original death certificate, or the coroner’s interim certificate, you can register the death with us. Please just take the certificate or a certified copy into a branch or send it to us by writing to Bereavement Services.

A 'certified copy' is a photocopy of the original document that has been certified to confirm the original has been seen. We can do this for you in branch. When you register the death at the registrar’s office you can alternatively pay for several copies of the death certificate so you don’t have to go to the trouble of getting someone to endorse (certify) a photocopy.

Bereavement Services
Specialist Customer Support
Nationwide Building Society
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN38 3FN

If you’re the personal representative and you’re not a Nationwide member, we’ll need to see your ID such as a valid full UK passport or valid full photocard driving licence and a recent proof of address such as a utility bill or bank statement. You can find details of acceptable ID here.

Your information may also be used for the prevention of money laundering. For more details on how Nationwide use your information, please see www.nationwide.co.uk/privacy.

We’ll write to the personal representative within 5 days to let them know what the next steps are and how and when the accounts will be closed.

If you'd like to go through the steps you need to take with one of our advisers in branch, this is a good time to make an appointment. Find your nearest branch's phone number.

If the person who died had accounts with a number of different providers, there's a free online Death Notification Service that lets you complete one notification that will be sent to all the participating financial institutions you need to contact.

The providers taking part in this service include:

• Nationwide
• Barclays
• HSBC
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Santander UK
• The Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest
• Bank of Scotland
• Barclaycard
• Halifax
• Scottish Widows

The full list of member organisations is available on the DNS website.

Please note that this is an online notification service only. If you use it, those organisations will update their records and contact you within 10 days to let you know the next steps.

If you’re arranging the funeral, you may need to pay for this upfront. There may be a life insurance policy or sole funeral plan that’s already paid for the funeral – but if there isn’t we can release money from the sole account of the person who’s died. If there isn’t enough money in the account to pay for all of the costs, we’ll release the available funds to help towards the final bill.

You can do one of the following:

• Fill in a Funds to Cover Fees form or a Personal representative registration form and return it to us. We don’t need to see the bill as we’ll make the cheque out to the Funeral Service provider.
• Visit your nearest branch or send the funeral invoice along with a covering letter with your name and address and the name and address of the person who has died to:

Bereavement Services
Specialist Customer Support
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN38 3FN

Please note if it’s an estimate we’ll only pay the deposit, if it’s the final invoice, we’ll pay the full amount. All cheques will be made out to the Funeral Service provider.

• If the bill has been paid by the executor, as well as the funeral invoice, we’ll also need to see a bank statement or credit card bill with their name and address, showing the debit.

You can download the Personal Representative’s request for funds to cover costs form.

You may need money to pay for other urgent expenses such as fees for Grant of Representation or inheritance tax (IHT).

To cover Grant of Probate or a Personal representative registration form fees, fill in a Funds to Cover Fees form and return it to us. We don't need to see the bill as we'll make the cheque out to the court.

To pay any inheritance tax (IHT) you can either:

• fill out and return form IHT423 to us. This is available at www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax. Once we receive this, we'll send you a cheque (please note we don't take part in the IHT direct payment scheme).
  OR
• fill in a Funds to Cover Fees form and return it to us. We don't need to see the bill as we'll make the cheque out to HMRC.

If there’s a will, we won’t need to see it to close or release funds from an account. Find out more information about wills, probate and inheritance tax.

After someone dies, their estate is shared out according to their will. Where no will was left, the estate is given to their next of kin. A person’s estate includes everything they own or that is registered in their name, things like:

• money (cash, bank or building society accounts, money owed by others)
• property
• personal possessions (such as jewellery or a car)
• insurance policies
• stocks and shares

Being a personal representative (the ‘executor’ or ‘administrator’) is an important role as it’s that person’s responsibility to carry out the administration of the estate. This can include:

• collecting all the assets of the estate
• dealing with any paperwork
• settling any debts, taxes, funeral and administration costs
• appointing a solicitor
• applying for probate where needed

You might find it easier to appoint a solicitor, chartered accountant, specialist probate service or bank to handle the administration. Many personal representatives do this. Before you do, however, bear in mind you’ll have to pay for these services.

You can deal with the estate yourself rather than appointing someone else to do it. Depending on the value of the estate, you may need to apply for a Grant of probate.

Find out more about Grant of probate.

When someone dies, their tax, benefits and National Insurance will need to be sorted out as soon as possible. There may be tax to pay, or their estate might be owed some tax back. We can issue tax statements for the member’s sole accounts up until the date of their death. Just so you know, we can’t do these sort of tax statements for joint accounts.

If you’ve been named as the personal representative, you’ll be responsible for paying any inheritance tax using funds from the person’s estate. Find out more about inheritance tax and the IHT423 form.

If there was any borrowing with us, such as a credit card, a loan or an overdraft in only their name, that debt will need to be repaid.

Our probate partner Phillips & Cohen Associates (UK) will contact the Personal Representative to help finalise matters and agree how the debt will be settled. If you want to contact them directly, their phone number is:

Please remember, we are here to help so If you've got any questions about this you can call our bereavement helpdesk on:

We'll need to see different things to close an account depending on how much money is held in it. The amount in the account also affects when the money can be released.

If it's less than £50,000
We'll need a completed Request to Close Account(s) form

£50,000+

We'll need a completed Request to Close Account(s) form and the Grant of probate.