When do I need to inform the banks (particularly NS&I) of my mother’s death?

Uglymug

RAS said:

Solicitors take longer because they wait 6 months after probate for any adverse claims or debts. They don't like doing interim distributions because they have to send out 2 lots of accounts.

You could pull in a lot of the money from the bank accounts, distribute much of it then wait for the NS&I accounts, plus any over the limit before a final accounting.

Again many thanks for all your responses.
Since the solicitors wrote my parents wills and acted for the sale of their house I planned to let them sort out the Inheritance tax with HMRC and get the probate forms (they quoted £2K for this).
On receipt of the probate forms I'd then planned to do the donkey work of collecting all the money and distributing it myself.
It seems I may have to keep say about 10% of the money in reserve for up to a year to pay for any adverse claims or debts before distributing what's left. Does this sound like a good plan?

user1977

Uglymug said:

RAS said:

Solicitors take longer because they wait 6 months after probate for any adverse claims or debts. They don't like doing interim distributions because they have to send out 2 lots of accounts.

You could pull in a lot of the money from the bank accounts, distribute much of it then wait for the NS&I accounts, plus any over the limit before a final accounting.

It seems I may have to keep say about 10% of the money in reserve for up to a year to pay for any adverse claims or debts before distributing what's left. Does this sound like a good plan?

If anything, possibly excessively cautious if you were already handling her finances - unless there's anything in particular which hasn't been squared off by the time everything else is sorted?

Shedman

Uglymug said:

It seems I may have to keep say about 10% of the money in reserve for up to a year to pay for any adverse claims or debts before distributing what's left. Does this sound like a good plan?

I think that once you think you have settled with all known creditors and HMRC, have conducted reasonable searches to find if there are any other creditors and are pretty certain you have dealt with everything then you can put a notice (Section 27 notice) in The Gazette and this gives any potential creditors or claimants 2 months to put a claim forward otherwise the Executor is then free to finalise distribution.  This might foreshorten the amount of time you need to hold on to the final distribution

https://www.co-oplegalservices.co.uk/media-centre/articles-apr-jun-2019/what-is-a-section-27-notice-in-probate/

Keep_pedalling

A solicitor will certainly put a notice in the Gazette, but as the OP knows the finances in detail then it is probably not worth while. Also it will be pointless if the OP is the only residual beneficiary as the notice only takes the executor out of the loop, residue beneficiaries can still be pursued by creditors. 

Shedman

Keep_pedalling said:

A solicitor will certainly put a notice in the Gazette, but as the OP knows the finances in detail then it is probably not worth while. Also it will be pointless if the OP is the only residual beneficiary as the notice only takes the executor out of the loop, residue beneficiaries can still be pursued by creditors. 

I would totally agree with you that where you have a straightforward estate and a detailed knowledge of deceased's financial affairs, as seems the OP does, then it's not worthwhile (I won't bother in the case of my MiL as I handled all money matters for her and she was in a care home for 6 years so no lingering unknown creditors).  But it is there as an option to bring things to a more defined close if an executor is concerned about being potentially being pursued months/years later and so feels they have to hang onto a final distribution.  And yes you are right to point out that the beneficiaries can still be pursued...which I suspect most don't realise.