How to find all the savings etc? Any tips?

Mrsss_2

Hi there, my dad passed away a few weeks ago without a will and I am trying to pull together all of his finances. I have been through all his paperwork but I am still a lot down on what I expected him to have. I am getting access to his emails but does anyone else have any tips on how I can find out about all his accounts etc? I did get some tips from the ISA forum but wondered if anyone else has had the same problem?

Thanks

motherofstudents

Firstly, I am sorry to hear of your dad's death. If you know which banks your dad used, you can usually approach them on a dedicated number which deals with people's accounts who have passed away. They are usually very helpful. It is sometimes best to visit the bank in question and ask them to give you the relevant phone number as I have never seen them on websites, although of course they may have a chat facility that you could ask.

If you are also looking for insurance policies, just ring up the ones you think he may have used. I have found them extremely helpful in most cases, although I still have one policy which I can't get any information on.

It goes to show how we should all put our important info in a safe place to help those we leave behind. I hope you manage to sort it all out soon.

Fire_Fox

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-lost-assets-free
http://www.mylostaccount.org.uk/aboutus.htm

motherofstudents

That's really useful info Fire Fox

demented_weasel

An approach I have used recently was as follows:

Get all the paperwork together, and sort into relevant piles.

Read each page to see if it's relevant or not.

Get the bank statements for the last few years from the banks bereavement section - the format is not the same as the normal statements, but all the necessary info is there.

Look for unusual transactions - by value and or description, and cross reference this against currently held info.

Anything not referenced can then be followed up.

The bank statements will also be useful if there are any gifts/potentially exempt transfers that might impact on Inheritance tax.