death planning - SCOTLAND

daska

Parents can be very good at finding access to their children's accounts unless they are tied up.

Your littlest brother should have a child trust fund, the older one won't unless something has been set up for him. If the Will doesn't provide a mechanism to protect he funds then it would probably be best if your aunt could approach their mother to find out more details. This is one area where a spot of proper legal advice might be useful.

doughuelas

rpc wrote: »

Is the money to be paid to them immediately, or held in trust until a certain age? The options available depend on the answer to this.

In any case, if your dad's name is not on the account, he can't access it. There will normally be a trustee which could be anyone (such as you or your aunt).

Hello

As far as I am aware there is no age restriction on the £ to be paid to them

They are to receive it immediately.

I will look into having my Aunt placed as a trustee

Many thanks

D

doughuelas

Hello,

Sadly my Gran passed away peacefully last night, bless her

Re the next steps;

Death certificate will be available for pick up tomorrow. I will register the death immediately upon pick up.

I have also had preliminary contact with the Funeral directors

The main query i have is with notifying all creditors (if that is the term) - pensions, life insurance, bills, direct debits etc etc

Am I best to use the 'tell us once' scheme or would it be best to nip into the bank and get all the accounts frozen?

My Gran does not have lots and lots of places to inform so I suppose another question is how many copy death certificates should I get to be on the safe side. 5? 10?

Please for give my ignorance in this area - any useful advice would be greatly appreciated

Similarly if there is anything quite basic I appear to be overlooking then please feel free to let me know - every little helps

Thanks again

D

trulys

Firstly, am so sorry to hear of your loss. My father passed away in April this year, and we told the bank immediately, and they stopped the account straight away. That way, no more direct debits can go out (unless they're within next couple of days perhaps).

I personally felt happier having told people myself, rather than using a tell-all once service - at least that way you know who you've actually told!

If you ring gas/electricity companies etc. they'll put you through to their bereavements dept., who will talk you through how to deal with the accounts. They're all very helpful and its a very easy process.

When you ring pension companies etc., they'll take the necessary info from you, then write to you outlining their requirements for documentation, etc.

I obtained 5 copies of the death certificate - people always send them back to you once they've noted them anyway.

I was lucky that my dad was very organised, and about a month before he died, he wrote down all his accounts, pension schemes, etc. - very sad to think of him doing that, but it was certainly helpful. I bought a large ring binder folder and a 1-31 index and itemised every account, utility company, etc., ticking them off as and when they were dealt with. Best thing is to be very organised basically.

Do make sure the house has adequate insurance - once its unoccupied things change. Some companies will carry on cover, some will not. Lloyds, who my dad was with, wouldn't so we arranged some 'unoccupied house insurance' through Fresh Insurance who were very reasonable.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but again, my sincere condolences to you all at this sad time.

Mojisola

trulys wrote: »

I personally felt happier having told people myself, rather than using a tell-all once service - at least that way you know who you've actually told!

The tell-us-once service only relates to things like benefits, pensions, council tax, blue badge, driving licence, libraries, etc.

You have to contact the banks, building societies, utility companies, phone companies and so on yourself.

doughuelas

trulys wrote: »

Firstly, am so sorry to hear of your loss. My father passed away in April this year, and we told the bank immediately, and they stopped the account straight away. That way, no more direct debits can go out (unless they're within next couple of days perhaps).

I personally felt happier having told people myself, rather than using a tell-all once service - at least that way you know who you've actually told!

If you ring gas/electricity companies etc. they'll put you through to their bereavements dept., who will talk you through how to deal with the accounts. They're all very helpful and its a very easy process.

When you ring pension companies etc., they'll take the necessary info from you, then write to you outlining their requirements for documentation, etc.

I obtained 5 copies of the death certificate - people always send them back to you once they've noted them anyway.

I was lucky that my dad was very organised, and about a month before he died, he wrote down all his accounts, pension schemes, etc. - very sad to think of him doing that, but it was certainly helpful. I bought a large ring binder folder and a 1-31 index and itemised every account, utility company, etc., ticking them off as and when they were dealt with. Best thing is to be very organised basically.

Do make sure the house has adequate insurance - once its unoccupied things change. Some companies will carry on cover, some will not. Lloyds, who my dad was with, wouldn't so we arranged some 'unoccupied house insurance' through Fresh Insurance who were very reasonable.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but again, my sincere condolences to you all at this sad time.

Hello

Many thanks for all your information, I have managed to do a fair bit today and it wasnt as difficult as I had anticipated

I did find my Grans home insurance company particularly unsympathetic to the situation - which surprised me slightly

Whilst I remember, my Gran donated money on a monthly basis to 3 charities - will these donations cease when I freeze the bank accounts or am I best to contact each one and cancel individually?

Thank you

D

daska

You're probably best to go through her bank statements for the last year (do the latest first) checking for all regular and one-off outgoings and contact the recipients direct. You can usually get a list of direct debits and standing orders from the bank which helps hit the high frequency things.

Some places are funny though, when I rang to tell Good Food that mum had died I was told they couldn't cancel her subscription unless I sent them a death certificate. For a pre-paid magazine sub! The simple solution was that they continue sending it as the sub was paid for the year but when I suggested it they said they couldn't do that because I'd informed them she had died!

doughuelas

daska wrote: »

You're probably best to go through her bank statements for the last year (do the latest first) checking for all regular and one-off outgoings and contact the recipients direct. You can usually get a list of direct debits and standing orders from the bank which helps hit the high frequency things.

Some places are funny though, when I rang to tell Good Food that mum had died I was told they couldn't cancel her subscription unless I sent them a death certificate. For a pre-paid magazine sub! The simple solution was that they continue sending it as the sub was paid for the year but when I suggested it they said they couldn't do that because I'd informed them she had died!

Many Thanks

I have just been into the bank and cancelled all direct debits etc etc, there was one standing order for £25 on her account that had very little information and it was only an annual payment

The bank had no idea what it was and as far as I can see there is nothing in her paper work to indicate a payment of this nature

Is this account essentially a mystery or does anyone have any tips on how id best get to the bottom of this?

Thanks

D

daska

doughuelas wrote: »

Many Thanks

I have just been into the bank and cancelled all direct debits etc etc, there was one standing order for £25 on her account that had very little information and it was only an annual payment

The bank had no idea what it was and as far as I can see there is nothing in her paper work to indicate a payment of this nature

Is this account essentially a mystery or does anyone have any tips on how id best get to the bottom of this?

Thanks

D

Try google?

£25 isn't a lot to go on, is there any description at all? It could be the annual cost of a magazine subscription or a membership so if you can take a look around the house you may get a clue.

trulys

Something else it could be is something like water supply pipe cover - you know, one of those policies which cover one item specifically, like pipes, so they're relatively cheap and you'd only pay it annually?

I wouldn't worry too much about it, as it was an annual payment, its not going to be a savings policy or anything that's likely to be due as a credit to the estate. I think we had one like that on my dad's statement - we never did figure out what it was!