My mum passed away last Saturday

foi1983

Hello,

My mum passed away last Saturday and we are trying to organise her financial affairs.

She has 2 life assurance policies and a defined contribution personal pension. What will happen to the pension?

She also has left a house and car. They are all paid off. Her contents and building insurance has expired. What do I do? Can I take out a policy in my name? No one lives at the house - will this invalidate any home insurance that I get?

TonyMMM

It is a difficult time, but you need to take things slowly & step by step.......1st of all, did she leave a will, if so who is named as the executor ? 2nd - was she married / have a partner ?

foi1983

TonyMMM wrote: »

It is a difficult time, but you need to take things slowly & step by step.......1st of all, did she leave a will, if so who is named as the executor ? 2nd - was she married / have a partner ?

Yes, she left a will. Her 5 kids get the house and the residual goes to the grandkids. She was divorced.

We have already seen the solicitor and given her all bank, credit card , pension and life assurance details. Apparently, it will take a year for it all to go through probate.

TonyMMM

..... foi1983 , my advice would be to think carefully whether you want the solicitor to do this for you - if the will is straightforward as you suggest, it isn't a difficult thing to sort out yourself - when I dealt with my father's estate a couple of years ago the solicitor quoted a fee of about £1000 plus 2% of the value of the estate. I did it myself and actually found it quite a good way of dealing with the bereavement - I felt I was doing something for my dad, which he would have wanted, as well as saving a lot of money for my mum. It really only consisted of sending off a few letters, filling in a couple of forms and swearing an oath at the probate court (sounds scary, but is actually just 5 mins in a office) ....whole process took about 3 or 4 months and most of that was just the waiting for an appointment at the probate registry.

RobertoMoir

foi1983 wrote: »

Hello,

My mum passed away last Saturday and we are trying to organise her financial affairs.

She has 2 life assurance policies and a defined contribution personal pension. What will happen to the pension?

She also has left a house and car. They are all paid off. Her contents and building insurance has expired. What do I do? Can I take out a policy in my name? No one lives at the house - will this invalidate any home insurance that I get?

First of all, sorry for your loss.

As for insurance, a lot of the "off the shelf" stuff you'd get quoted for on the internet does assume someone lives there, but if you / the executor speaks to an insurance broker they may be able to come up with a specific policy for this kind of situation.

lisyloo

As regards the pension, it sounds like she has no dependents, so there may be a lump sum (I'm presuming she died before retirement).
Contact her employer.

I would try to get insurance ASAP, but as a precaution short term, it might be worth removing any small but valuable items (like jewelry) or anything if sentimental value (old photos?) from the house for safe keeping.
Make sure you specify that the house is unoccupied for insurance.
This makes a difference (it's higher risk for burglary).

vegasvisitor

I am in a similar situation but it was early June for me. I am just starting to look at insurance for the house, as a renewal letter arrived last week.

Tried confused with no luck - unable to offer an online quote. I'm going to call the current insurer and ask what they can do.

I also have the scenario with a car. Trying to sell it at the moment, and also need to cancel the insurance for that.

foi1983

Hello all,

Sorry for the late reply.

We have asked the solicitor to deal with it all, as she has foreign bank accounts and over 20 credit cards, accounts and various other things. I just dont have time to deal with it to be honest.

Still trying to get insurance for an unoccupied house.

glider3560

foi1983 wrote: »

Still trying to get insurance for an unoccupied house.

Try a local insurance broker or call some insurance companies. You won't find anything online that will cover unoccupied houses.

buxtonrabbitgreen

I was executor for my mum's estate. Not as complicated as yours, and she was a very organized person so it was relatively simple. I phoned her home insurance company and they arranged for insurance for the house whilst it was empty.
sorry to hear you have lost your mum. I agree with tonymmm, it helped me to deal with her loss, getting everything organized.