What to do when a partner/spouse dies.

montycat_2

An'ws Mum ,

I was in your situation and ,the Coroners office gave me all the info.that you would normally get from the Registrar .I didn't have to ask .Mind you ,saying that ,it was the coroner who came in with me to identify my husbands body so ,maybe it was the personal contact that helped .
Have you the name and number of the Coroner ?Give them a call .
The benefits office and CAB also hold these documents .

I hope you get a date for the Inquest soon .It is horrible having to wait .

ashby

When my father died after a long illness he had a motability car, which had to be returned almost immediately. My mother lives in the countryside and could have been in difficulties. Luckily, in her case the firm with which the agreement existed were willing to give a bit of leeway and a few weeks later she was able to buy a second hand one. I understand that usually the return should be at once after the funeral. Something to bear in mind if you are relying on a sick person's mobility allowance to run a car.

littleowl

I wonder whether anyone could advise me?

I am about to make a will. I am 64 with two adult children and divorced. I have looked at Life Insurance - in order to cover funeral costs and perhaps a little over -but notice that one can only insure up to the age of 70. Obviously if I took out such a policy and survived beyond that age - which I intend doing - then the premium payments would be wasted.
What I want to do is to ensure there is some money somewhere to cover funeral and other expenses. My estate will be small and fairly simple - I do not own a house and only have savings in Premium Bonds and in the antiques I own.
As I have no spouse it seems that there would be no State grants available? I intend naming my son as executor and want him to benefit from what I do leave without having to use any assets for funeral etc.

Any advice would be appreciated.

AnW'sMum

hi Littleowl

There are several options open to you, life insurance (which you have discounted), a prepaid funeral plan, with this one you get to choose the type of funeral you want, obviously you would need to make your son aware of this so he would know who to contact at the time. Alternatively you could put a regular amount away in a high rate savings account, it could be the amount you would have paid as a life insurance premium. I have heard of quite a few people who have what they call their 'funeral' account which is kept purely for that purpose.

Above all, discuss it with your son so that he knows your wishes.

I'm sure there will be more suggestions soon, these are just my thoughts.

littleowl

Thank you for your reply AnW'sMum. The idea of a 'funeral account' is a good one.

I will, of course, give my son all the information he will need. I am just concerned about sorting this out in the best way possible so that the whole thing will be simple when the time comes.

Also - in the spirit of MSE - it would be nice to do it the most financially advantageous way possible.

littleowl

Oh - I should have asked - where does one find information about 'funeral plans'?

AnW'sMum

littleowl

I found this link which may give you a bit more information

http://www.uknetguide.co.uk/Finance/Article/Funeral_Prepay_Plans.html

I am considering this option myself but as it says in the article make sure you know exactly what is covered and what might be extra ie notices in newspapers etc

AnW'sMum

mmmmmm also found this http://www.funeralplanningauthority.com/index.html which is the Funeral Planning Authority who basically (as far as I can see) 'ensure proper consumer protection for the security of customer's money and delivery of the funeral'

They have a list of funeral directors signed up to their code of conduct. Seems a good place to start.

littleowl

Thank you so much AnW'sMum - it is very kind of you. I'll examine your links with interest. Like many people I suppose I have rather ignored this aspect of life but reading through this thread and the awful problems some people have when a relative dies brought me up short. It has made me want to try to prevent extra strain on my family when they will be having enough to cope with.

Regarding Life Assurance - I had not realised when younger that insurance stopped at 70 - so everyone with such a policy presumably loses all they have contributed in premiums when when reach that age. Can this possibly be true? I have never been a fan of insurances - hmm

AnW'sMum

Just bumping this for anyone who might need some help