When a partner dies

shrewman

Over the past few years some of our friends have had a partner pass away, and they have relayed to us how difficult it has been to get things sorted out, especially on the banking and insurance side. And the number of death certificates that need to be purchased astonished us.

Do you know if there is a lay-man’s guide as to what to do when a partner passes? Is there an order of doing things who to contact with regards to tax and to banking arrangements, how easy is it to change over standing orders/ direct debits etc.

Is there anything i can do now to ease this transition?

Newly_retired

If you click on the top thread, the Sticky above, you will find several useful guides and threads.

Potentially the best thing to do is to be married or enter a Civil Partnership. This makes things a lot easier.

Make sure you each have a will, and to make things easier during life, sort Power of Attorney.

Florenceem

My husband passed away in January. I bought 4 death certificates - could have managed with less as most places take a photo copy when you take it in.

I had no issues with bank accounts - I took the will and death certificate into the bank.

Newly_retired

Many financial and other institutions will accept a scanned copy of the death certificate too.

MSE_ForumTeam5

This MSE guide may help:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/

elsien

It is the difference between partner, civil partner or spouse, and whether there is a will naming the partner as executor or not.

Otherwise it can all get a bit messy so getting those aspects sorted out first would be the way to go,

ChasingtheWelshdream

I am a Registrar.

It very much depends if your partner is 'official' for want of a better word. Sadly, even if you have been with your partner for 50 years, there is very little legal protection unless they are your Civil Partner or Spouse.

I often see couples who assume that "everything will go to my partner/next-of-kin", but that is not necessarily the case. I would strongly recommend speaking to a solicitor in terms of wills, executors and LPA. And if you can, consider going to a Civil Partnership if you do not wish to marry. It is not expensive, gives the same legal protections as marriage and is probably the single easiest thing you can do to protect you both.

In terms of the actual process at the sad time, the Registrar will guide through the Tell Us Once service which informs many government departments at the same time.

Death certificates are provided at the time of registering the death and cost £12.50 each, but extra copies can be ordered later if you need. I have had families order 10, which is quite an expense. For my parent's death, we ordered and needed only one.

I hope that helps.

SiliconChip

I ordered 10 copies of the death certificate when my mum died but that was way too many, I've just checked my records and only 5 organisations wanted to see it, 4 of them returned the certificate within a few days and only 1 kept it. Lloyds only wanted the reference number from the top right of the certificate to permit the balance to be transferred.

KxMx

I went for two copies to administer a fairly simple estate.

I'd done my research beforehand, 1 bank needed one in the post everywhere else important I checked (wasn't an exhaustive list) would accept an electronic copy uploaded.

I've not run into anything unexpected yet.

otb666

We ordered 20 copies for first parent death and 7 for second. Did not need more than 4 really looking back

Marcon

If you google on 'what to do when someone dies' a number of useful threads pop up eg https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/legal-issues/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/

https://www.gov.uk/when-someone-dies

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/what-to-do-after-a-death/

What you can do now (and your post of 23 March indicates your wife is still alive and well) is ensure that you both have a file of personal information to ensure that important stuff is easy and quick to lay hands on. In particular, depending on how much you use a computer/phone, think about passwords and whether you know the details for each other. Do you know each other's NI number? It's little details like that which can cause inconvenience and aggro out of all proportion.