When a spouse dies

Mrs_pbradley936

When a spouse dies and there are "mirror wills" do you have to do anything or does property/pension/assets automatically become owned by the survivor?

gettingtheresometime

I always thought mirror wills were wills that left the assets to the same beneficiaries.

So say X & Y had mirror wills X's will would say I leave everything to Y and then Z and Y's will would say I leave everything to X and then Z.

So if say X died then X's will would be executed and then when Y died Y's will would be executed bearing in mind that X had already died.

So I guess,to answer your question, it depends on how the property was owned as to whether Y inherits the property either by survivorship or through the will, the pension would depend on the terms of the pension (ie whether there's a widow(er) pension or none at all and assets would have to be distributed through the terms of the will

Obviously then Y may want to review their will

Mojisola

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

When a spouse dies and there are "mirror wills" do you have to do anything or does property/pension/assets automatically become owned by the survivor?

It depends - if all accounts were joint accounts and any property was owned as 'joint tenants', then you may not have to do anything - but it wouldn't be because the will was a mirror will but because of the joint ownership.

[Deleted User]

I have just been through all that, death of my spouse and mirror wills. Assets don`t automatically transfer, you have to inform banks, building societies etc anywhere where there is a joint account and you then have to write with a copy of the death cert. Banks were accessible all the time but they still needed to know and then they transferred the account into a single name and issued new cheque books

The house was transferred by filling in a form from the land registry

Any asset in a single name had, for me, to go through probate and as I was the sole executor, I did all the paperwork. Grant then had to be sent to the various institutions

It is still going on. At the moment I am gathering the info needed for his tax return

Isas can be transferred and it was a tricky process but is a legal entitlement

NS&I were also tricky in that they are a huge institution with departments who didn`t seem to communicate

Any more info required then please go onto the widows thread on the over 50 forum. Several knowledgeable people there who have been through it

SeniorSam

ISA's cannot be transferred as they are in individual names. A new rule will allow ISA's to be sold and the holding can be bought by the surviving spouse to add to their own holdings, but a straigh transfer is not permitted.

Sam

Newly_retired

Aren't the methods slightly different depending on whether it's S&S or cash ISA?

[Deleted User]

I did a cash isa

It was put into a new isa in my name with the same company as his and I have now requested this cash isa to be transferred to join my s and s isa with another company

I did have to go through hoops and it was disturbing in that the co didn`t know what they were doing. They have given me an amount of compensation, which I didn`t request but I was glad of

pimento

My husband died last July. We shared a house with a mortgage and he had some Premium Bonds.

The Building Society took his name off the mortgage free. I filled in a form for the Land Registry who removed his name from the deeds free.
NS&I wanted a form completed by the executors (my mum and my sister) and they then sent me the money. No charge.

No probate was required.

wiltslass

Kittie and Pimento, could you advise the number of the Land Registry form please. My husband passed away two weeks ago and I need to do this.

pimento

Sorry to hear that, wiltslass. Here's the link for the form.

wiltslass

Many thanks. The info will save a bit of searching.