Premium Bonds

Magnolia

My Husband died in November . Not an IHT family but we had made mirror wills leaving everything to each other with each other being the executor of each others wills and joint tenants in the property.

The only reason I would need probate is to sort out the premium bonds.  I wrote to the premium bonds people informing them of his demise fully expecting a request for probate documents.

Well!  Back end of last week I received a letter from said premium bonds people requesting the original will and the original death certificate!  You could have knocked me down with a feather!  No probate!  He had just short of £26k so well over the £5k minimum.

I have read the letter several times to make sure I have not missed anything.  Even got my sons to read it through as well.

I feel certain that this wouldn't be the case for everyone - I just wanted to let people know that probate isn't always requested in holdings over £5K.

Just do the notification first and see what they ask for before applying for probate.

Gers

What a relief for you. I too received my late DM's PB investment of well over £5k without the need to obtain confirmation, probably because I had been managing her account with my POA for a number of years. 

Keep_pedalling

NSI do say they will let you know if they require probate if over £5k so it does seem to be discretionary and probably depends on the relationship between the deceased and the person applying.

Magnolia

Keep_pedalling said:

probably depends on the relationship between the deceased and the person applying.

Didn't think of that KP.  I am sure I have read on here that they always ask  for probate if over £5k.  Might just be me miss understanding things but most probably someone replying to someone who is an executor but not a spouse of the testator..

Still it was a relief not to have to apply for probate although I had faffed about with the online form and it wasn't very complicated at all!

Keep_pedalling

Magnolia said:

Keep_pedalling said:

probably depends on the relationship between the deceased and the person applying.

 I am sure I have read on here that they always ask  for probate if over £5k.  Might just be me miss understanding things but most probably someone replying to someone who is an executor but not a spouse of the testator..

The actual wording on the NS&I web site suggests it is discretionary rather than compulsory.

We will let you know if we need a Grant of Representation (also known as a Grant of Probate or Grant of Letters of Administration) once we receive your completed form. We may ask for this if the customer's total NS&I savings are £5,000 or over. 

Flugelhorn

good to hear that they don't always went GoP -  a nuisance for bereaved spouse if that is the only organisation wanting it.

Suffolksue

My husband had £21k and they couldn’t have been more unhelpful and obstructive if they’d tried.Like you we weren’t into IHT and had mirror wills 

I spent hours on the phone and on the live chat ,took ages to get the form to obtain the exact holding ,which they then lost ,they said they’d outsourced some of the probate work to India ,but didn’t know if his had gone or not !

I had to ring the probate offic for advice at one point and he said why are you applying for probate for this estate size ,I just said Premium Bonds and he sighed .!
So pleased it’s worked ok for you 
Make sure you send anything registered mail as I wouldn’t trust them at all .

Keep_pedalling

Suffolksue said:

Make sure you send anything registered mail as I wouldn’t trust them at all .

Or better still apply on line.

https://forms.nsandi.com/gateway/online-forms/index#/form/bereavement

Magnolia

Keep_pedalling said:

Or better still apply on line.

https://forms.nsandi.com/gateway/online-forms/index#/form/bereavement

 That is the first form you fill in to notify them of the death.  I have another form to complete to send with the will and death certificate which had different questions regarding the bank account to pay the money into.

Suffolksue  - I am so sorry you had a bad experience with them.  Its not what you need at a difficult time.

Magnolia

I am getting even more impressed with the NS&I.  I posted the will and the death certificate on the 10/03/2023 and both documents were returned to me on the 15/03/2023.  Pretty good service from them.

Magnolia

Magnolia said:

My Husband died in November . Not an IHT family but we had made mirror wills leaving everything to each other with each other being the executor of each others wills and joint tenants in the property.

The only reason I would need probate is to sort out the premium bonds.  I wrote to the premium bonds people informing them of his demise fully expecting a request for probate documents.

Well!  Back end of last week I received a letter from said premium bonds people requesting the original will and the original death certificate!  You could have knocked me down with a feather!  No probate!  He had just short of £26k so well over the £5k minimum.

I have read the letter several times to make sure I have not missed anything.  Even got my sons to read it through as well.

I feel certain that this wouldn't be the case for everyone - I just wanted to let people know that probate isn't always requested in holdings over £5K.

Just do the notification first and see what they ask for before applying for probate.

I had a much different experience when my husband died.  The one thing I did wrong was to make what had been our joint account into a sole account.  This foxed NS&I as it wasn't the name on the bank my husband had registered with them.  I just got cheques through the  post when there was a win.