Can anyone please recommend a reasonably priced UK sequential guide (preferably England specifically) to what has to be done when someone dies? I know here is a lot of material around but I have not found any that tells a bereaved what to do when, for example, a loved one has a heart attack, an ambulance arrives but too late and the crew refuse to remove the body.
Amazon has a promising Which?2006 paperback - but at £69. Several guides are based on US law but is hard to know that when shopping online.
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The thing that puzzles me is, when someone who has no obvious relatives dies, how do the authorities, or the executor know that they have located all the assets and monies that the person possessed?
How does anyone know there wasn't an odd £10,000 tucked away in XYZ Unit Trust?
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>> How does anyone know there wasn't an odd £10,000 tucked away in XYZ Unit Trust?
They won't know. There's firms that hunt money down (for a fee) and get to the nearest relative.
Even when there are near relatives there's no guarantee that there isn't hidden money.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 27 Apr 21 at 11:32
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>> They won't know. There's firms that hunt money down (for a fee) and get to
>> the nearest relative.
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>> Even when there are near relatives there's no guarantee that there isn't hidden money.
Therefore the answer is to keep a list of all savings, investments and assets, and make sure there is more than one copy?
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That's what I've done, electronically of course, along with account details and how to reach them.
And consolidated stuff into many fewer accounts than had built up over the years. It's an ongoing task to some extent.
Then there is the less important stuff, where you've paid a renewing sub to something (for me, Private Eye and CAMRA spring to mind, but also I have a car servicing agreement), or pay by standing order (car insurance, TV licence, charity contributions etc) I suppose many of those would lapse if they weren't able to collect the annual standing order and I'm sure they'd all have a process in place anyway.
You could also consider websites where you are storing any info which may still be required or of interest after your passing e.g. my ancestry.com account has our family tree on it which my daughter has spent a considerable amount of time researching (days and days of effort over a long period, with input from other parts of the family), and I used to rely somewhat on Google's free photo service for backups of my pics.
Also some thought as to what happens with social media accounts (and maybe email) when you die. I initially found it a bit of a shocker (and assumed it was an oversight) when I got a reminder from FB that it was my mate's birthday when we'd buried him 8 months before, but I understand some relatives like to keep the page going as a memento.
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 26 Apr 21 at 17:12
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There is a file on the cloud which my family are aware of. It has everything.
Including my password, details and account manager password which then gets you full access to everything I have or have ever had anywhere.
As to what they do with the things like social media accounts and forums, shut it down, ignore it or keep it, then that's up to them.
But they will have knowledge and access to everything. Including how to unencrypt the file.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 26 Apr 21 at 17:19
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>> The thing that puzzles me is, when someone who has no obvious relatives dies, how
>> do the authorities, or the executor know that they have located all the assets and
>> monies that the person possessed?
>>
>> How does anyone know there wasn't an odd £10,000 tucked away in XYZ Unit Trust?
There are, as somebody else pointed out, professional firms that will work on tracing relatives and no doubt assets too. The BBC ran several series on this work under the title Heir Hunters. One of the subjects was a chap who turned out to be called Charlie Cullum. He was a former colleague of mine though we knew him as Carl Von-Eudeni, a Clerical Officer He was the sort of eccentric who wouldn't last in today's Civil Service but personnel found various niches for him over the years. He'd had some sort of health incident as a youngish man that completely turned his personality - there was a medical term for it.
Where people have no relatives whatsoever the estate passes to the Crown though it can be restored if a relative emerges later. There are oddities in Cornwall and Lancashire where it passes to the Duchy rather than directly to the Crown. There's a team at the Treasury Solicitor's Office dealing with it:
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/bona-vacantia
They will go through documentation etc with a fine tooth comb.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 26 Apr 21 at 17:53
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>> Where people have no relatives whatsoever the estate passes to the Crown though it can
>> be restored if a relative emerges later.
Please forgive the statement of the b obvious, but the above only applies if there is no will.
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>> Please forgive the statement of the b obvious, but the above only applies if there
>> is no will.
Of course. If named beneficiaries cannot be traced there is another process whereby the executor pays the money into court.
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>> The thing that puzzles me is, when someone who has no obvious relatives dies, how
>> do the authorities, or the executor know that they have located all the assets and
>> monies that the person possessed?
>>
>> How does anyone know there wasn't an odd £10,000 tucked away in XYZ Unit Trust?
>>
Very helpfully my father, who is far more organised than I am, has a file on his laptop (backed up to the cloud somewhere) which he has told us is called “If I die” that contains details of all investments, property, bank accounts etc etc. When I suggested he rename it “when I die”, as his naming convention seemed a little optimistic, I got short shrift...
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>When I suggested he rename it “when I die”, as his naming convention seemed a little optimistic, I got short shrift..
He then added "Peter did it." to the top of the file ;-)
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IIRC my stepmother used "What to do when someone dies" published by Consumers Association. Ebay has copies of the book but by different authors. I don't know if it answers your specific requirement.
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>> IIRC my stepmother used "What to do when someone dies" published by Consumers Association.
My father had a copy of that 40+ years ago. There's some stuff on line at the Which? website:
www.which.co.uk/later-life-care/end-of-life/what-to-do-when-someone-dies?
Citizens Advice also has lots on the subject. New users need to ensure they select England (or wherever the deceased was).
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/what-to-do-after-a-death/
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I can't say I know much about this but a quick Google for the immediate and practical kind of problem you specifically mention seems to often lead to calling the NHS helpline on 111 for help and info. That's worth remembering - it's certainly not one I'd have immediately thought of.
This page specifically talks about the death at home www.dignityfunerals.co.uk/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/when-someone-dies-at-home/
This site also has some helpful info www.bereavementadvice.org/topics/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/
as of course does the macmillan site
www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/supporting-someone/coping-with-bereavement/what-to-do-after-someone-dies
As far as letting officialdom know, the Tell Us Once service looks very useful, they suggest it will be offered when you register the death www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once
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>>one has a heart attack, an ambulance arrives but too late and the crew refuse to remove the body.
This happened to me when my FIL died. I was there, but so were his wife and daughters. I stepped back and let them deal with it, offering help where I could. IIRC the ambulance crew informed us of the procedure.
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There is of course the Police and Coroner's Office that will help you through the very first steps.
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We deal with the Duchy of Lancaster in bona vacantia cases - in relation to the property and assets of value. Obviously it is when people die without a will (or a will cannot be found) and no known living relatives. The investigation takes some time and during that period we secure the assets and if asked sell them unless they appear ot be family heirlooms.
I have never known a case where the deceased was not male. In one case the man was 59, two weeks into retirement from the Post Office after 40 years and had bought new Kia.
In another, we found a next of kin, but it turned out that the person was the recently divorced ex-husband of the sister of the deceased and the sister had died just before her brother. So the ex-brother-in-law did not count and the money went to the Crown.
It can be fascinating.
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Many thanks for all the leads.
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What To Do When Someone Dies - No FM2R
