How Many Copies of Death Certificate

AnaBenjie

Tomorrow I will be going to register my Mother's death. How many copies of the Death Certificate is it wise to get at that time? (Apparently cheaper to get copies then and there than certified copies from a solicitor later on.)
Having been a registered attorning for my Mum over the last few years, I know that banks, etc., will only coooperate if they see are sent a genuine certified copy of a document (in that case Enduring Power of Attorney).
On the Money Saving Expert website on this matter it says you will need "five copies of the Death Certificate". In people's experience here, how many certificates did they need? As well as the usual needs, will probably be dealing with five or six banks, building socs. There will be two joint executors involved, not within easy travelling distance of each other.
Thanks all.
And thanks for posts regarding executor bank accounts, earlier today.

Tom99

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]If you have 5 or 6 banks to deal with you probably need at least 10 copies to be safe, maybe more if you have utilities etc to deal with.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]If you personally visit the banks they will probably copy the certificate and give it back to you straight away.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]If you mail the certificate they should still return the original to you however it is not always convenient to wait for a returned copy.[/FONT]

LutonGirl

Sorry to hear your sad news. When my Dad died we got 4 copies of the certificate. We found that the companies/organisations that needed to see them were good about returning them, so we kept recycling them back out again until everyone was notified. From memory, the copies weren't expensive if ordered at the time of registration.

TonyMMM

Certificates on the day of registration will cost you £4 each. If you need more from the registration office later they are £7.

Get as many as you think you will need to send away - which will depend on the complexity of the estate. With banks/building societies you can often take a certificate into a branch if there is one local to you and they will take their own copy from it so you may not need as many as you think. You won't need them for notifying utilities.

5 or 6 is a very common number to get, but 10-12 isn't unusual.

LEJC

I wouldn't go for as many as 10....

Last time in this position I got 3 to be sent to companies...they are able to register and return the certificates to you,so 3 seemed a good rolling total for that and a further 2 copies to be kept "clean" for the family archive

Hoping all runs smoothly for you at this time of loss.

troubleinparadise

And it often seemed necessary to go with a copy of the Will and your ID to prove you were the executor to financial institutions on foot, along with with the death certificate.

I found 6 was more than adequate, and of course they now sit untouched in a sad little file in the cabinet...

getmore4less

I went for one master copy for the files

One copy to carry about when doing walk ins.

a few copies for those you need to send off, you get them back so can use more than once but can take time say a few days if you work on a week turnaround you can get to everyone with a few.

as you tend to do the equiries at the same time the quicker you want them complete the more you need.

In the end only one got damaged, returned sliced in two by the automated letter opener at one of the banks, they would have replaced but not worth the effort with spares.

badmemory

I got enough to do all the ones I knew would need posting, plus 2 to carry round & one that never left the house. Although people were extremely good at returning documents. Do use the "tell us once" though - it can make life a lot easier & save overpayments of things like pensions & attendance allowance etc.

DigForVictory

My condolences on your loss.

Honestly, sending off certificates hoping they do come back is bad for the nerves - if you can afford to get enough to post them & not worry about it, do so, but run an eye over who is included in the "tell us once" as it's a very potent tool.

If there are several pensions & banks? One each may be overkill or may be blessed relief - much depends on where you are & just how severely bereavement is biting.

May you find calm waters.

Linton

I bought 10 and only used about 4. The utilities, BT and broadband supplier etc were happy with a scanned copy sent by email. The pension company wanted an official copy sent by post and I visited the local branches of the banks who were able to make copies of an official DC for their internal use.

Savvy_Sue

Linton wrote: »

I bought 10 and only used about 4. The utilities, BT and broadband supplier etc were happy with a scanned copy sent by email. The pension company wanted an official copy sent by post and I visited the local branches of the banks who were able to make copies of an official DC for their internal use.

That's about how it worked for me too: in general going into bank branches local to me was the best solution, and the certificates were copied on the spot and returned to me. Utilities and almost everyone else took a scanned copy by email. Very few ever left my file for more than the time to go into a bank.

the ONLY exception was a catalogue company. Mum owed them nothing, but they refused to close her account unless I posted them a death certificate. AFAIK the account is still open, but they did finally stop sending catalogues and emails ...