When someone dies

The first two weeks

Register the death, usually within five days in England and Wales. You'll be given the documents everything else depends on, and it's worth asking for several certified copies — organisations often want originals and returning them takes weeks.

Use Tell Us Once if it's offered. It notifies most government departments in one go and saves a great deal of repetition.

Contact the pension providers and employer. Pension death benefits are often payable quickly, and where a policy is written in trust the money can reach the family within weeks rather than waiting for probate.

Don't cancel anything you don't have to yet, and don't rush to close accounts. There's no advantage to speed.

What has an actual deadline

Inheritance tax is due six months after the end of the month of death, and interest runs after that. Where tax is payable, this is the deadline that matters, and it can arrive before probate is granted — which creates the awkward situation of needing to pay tax on an estate you can't yet access. There are mechanisms for this, including paying from the deceased's own accounts directly and instalment options for property.

Pension death benefits generally need designating within two years for the most favourable tax treatment where death was before 75.

A deed of variation, if beneficiaries want to redirect anything, must be done within two years. See You've inherited money.

Almost everything else is administration without a hard deadline.

Probate

Probate is the legal authority to deal with the estate. You may not need it at all — small estates, and assets held jointly, often pass without it.

Joint accounts and jointly owned property held as joint tenants pass automatically to the survivor by survivorship, outside the will and without probate.

Life policies written in trust pay directly to beneficiaries, quickly, without probate. This is exactly why writing policies in trust matters — see Putting policies in trust.

Pensions are usually paid at the discretion of scheme trustees and also sit outside probate.

What's left — accounts in the sole name, property held as tenants in common, investments — generally needs probate. It takes months rather than weeks, and delays are normal.

You can do it yourself, and plenty of people do for straightforward estates. A solicitor is worth it where the estate is complex, where inheritance tax is payable, or where there's any chance of a dispute.

If your spouse or civil partner died

The rules are more generous, and two things are commonly missed.

Everything passes to you free of inheritance tax, and their unused nil rate bands transfer to you, which can be worth a great deal on your own eventual estate. This has to be claimed, so keep the records.

Their ISA allowance can be preserved. You can claim an additional permitted subscription equal to the value of their ISA at death, on top of your own annual allowance. It's separate from inheriting the money itself and it's frequently overlooked — ask the ISA provider.

Bereavement Support Payment may be available, with a limited initial lump sum and monthly payments for a limited period. It has to be claimed, and claiming promptly matters because backdating is restricted.

Their pension may be available as beneficiary drawdown rather than a lump sum, which is usually better — see What happens to what's left.

If you weren't married

The position is considerably worse and worth being clear about.

There's no automatic inheritance under intestacy for a cohabiting partner, however long you were together. No spouse exemption from inheritance tax. No Bereavement Support Payment. No transferable nil rate band. No ISA subscription.

If there's a will leaving you provided for, that governs. If there isn't, the estate passes to blood relatives under the intestacy rules and you may have to make a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act — possible, but difficult, slow and adversarial.

Your own position afterwards

At some point, but not immediately, your own finances need looking at again.

Your income has probably changed. Your protection needs have changed. Your own will almost certainly needs rewriting, and your own pension expression of wish forms need updating — they may still name the person who died.

Don't make large decisions quickly. Moving house, investing a lump sum, giving money away — none of it improves for being done in the first six months, and grief is a poor state for irreversible choices. Park anything you can.

If you do nothing else in the first year, update your will and your beneficiary nominations. Everything else can follow.

This page is for general education only and isn't personal advice. Estate administration, tax deadlines and entitlements vary with circumstances and between the nations of the UK.