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The six things you must do in the week after your parent dies

Journalist: Marc Shoffman, Freelance

ended 02. June 2023

Hello, I am writing a rather cheery guide for the Daily Telegraph on what you need to do in the first week after your parent dies.

The headline is  Your parents have died: the six things you must do within a week

It will be a guide assuming they left no record of where their money was so tips could include how to find out where their pension is / find out premium bonds number etc etc), other bank accounts.

Any other niche tips or things people may not consider are also welcome.

Kind regards

Marc

 

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
Number 1 tip - Contact their financial adviser: Get in touch with your parent's financial adviser, if they had one, as they will hold valuable records of their investments, pensions, and potentially undisclosed savings accounts.

We have saved our client's children a lot of time, money and worry by providing this information when the worst happens.
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Ross Lacey
Director & Independent Financial Adviser at Fairview Financial Management
A week is a very short time and the reality is, there's rarely anything, particularly financially, that can't wait for a few weeks. Our advice to clients at these difficult times is to allow themselves time to grieve, focus on the other things that need doing like arranging the funeral and then when they are ready, start getting paperwork together to help identify what their parent had. Without a will, the parent's estate will go through the "intestacy" process which will confirm how and where any assets and cash are distributed. Important to remember that in most cases, money held within pensions falls outside of the estate and will be distributed according to the nomination of beneficiary held by the pension provider.
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Kundan Bhaduri
Property Developer and Portfolio Landlord at The Kushman Group
Losing a parent is a deeply distressing experience, and while there are a lot of emotions involved, a calm mind needs to prevail to sort out the finances. Here are my top 6 tips once key documents such as the will, bank statements, investment records, insurance policies, and property deeds are identified:
a) Check if mum/dad had a safe deposit box at a bank and locate the necessary keys or access details
b) Notify all relevant financial institutions about the passing, including banks, building societies, and credit unions
c) Contact the Pension Tracing Service (PTS) to investigate and locate any potential pension funds or workplace pensions
d) Identify any outstanding loans/mortgages mum/dad may have had. Notify creditors and lenders and discuss settling the debts or negotiate new terms
e) Locate Unclaimed Assets such as premium bonds, as these may yield unclaimed prizes.
f) Go through life insurance policies, health insurance, car insurance and funeral plans to make necessary claims
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Steven Mather
Lawyer & Director at Steven Mather Solicitor
Check for a Will. Did they mention a will or a particular solicitors firm which might be holding the Will. A Will appoints executors to deal with it all, unless it’s you then sorry you can’t pass the buck. The Will also tells you how to distribute their estate once you’ve found all the pots of money everywhere. If there’s a Will you’ll need a Grant of Probate, which you can do yourself but probably best done by a professional solicitor. If there’s no Will, it’ll be something called Letters of Administration - again best done with professional help to minimise disputes. Both these applications require a whole host of information about finances, so those steps come first.
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Dr Marianne Trent
Clinical Psychologist at Good Thinking Psychology
Speaking as a bereaved daughter, a clinical psychologist and author of The Grief Collective I advocate for knowing that whatever the things you need to do you don't need to do them alone. It's okay to ask friends and family to support and help you. It might be physically being by your side as you do some of the death-min like booking an appointment to register the death. It might even just be them offering to cook for you, to drop meals off for you or to look after your kids for a while so you can lay in bed and cry or just sit and process. It might even just be being at the other end of texts or WhatsApp as you do all of these things and encounter all of those first times without your parent being here anymore.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
It's recognised that at this terribly distressing time the sooner you act to hand over as much responsibility to various third parties who are more remote from the loss the better the outcome. Ideally, a lower-down family member from the loss should be looked to who can handle the framework of the funeral arrangements with a tickbox back to the main descendants at varying stages to ensure that any of the bereaved's stated intentions and theirs are followed. Funerals are expensive and vulnerable people shouldn't be in charge of these ideally. Securing all financial-related paperwork and the will should ideally be handed to a financial practitioner/solicitor for analysis and reporting back to the beneficiaries. Registering the death is another stressful process that needs handling along with ordering enough green copies of the certificate as will be required, seeking help with this from the professional handling the deceased's financial paperwork will help understand how many are needed.