Finding details of Assets and Debts
Find organisations to contact about the person’s assets and debts by searching through their papers. You can also ask friends, family and any solicitor or accountant they had.
Organisations that hold a person’s assets often include:
- their bank
- their pension provider – ask if you should include any private pension when you value the estate
- their employer – the person may be owed wages
any companies they held shares in – include the number of shares, company details and the share certificate number (if you have it)
- National Savings and Investments (NS&I) for Premium Bonds – use the free tracing service if you can’t find certificates
- other organisations that hold assets like ISAs, shares, investments or assets in a trust
- their landlord, if they had one – the person may have paid rent in advance
In your letter to the bank, also ask for:
- any standing orders and direct debits to be stopped (or transferred if they were in a joint name)
- a list of any share certificates or deeds they were holding for the person who died
If the person had a mortgage
Ask the mortgage lender if they require payments to continue while you’re applying for probate. If they do, you need to either:
- pay these bills yourself – and reclaim them from the estate once you’ve got probate
- check if the person had a life assurance or mortgage protection policy that covers these payments
Please contact us with any queries.
Getting help
You can hire a professional (for example licensed Probate practitioner) to help with some or all of the tasks involved with valuing an Estate and taking out the grant of Probate.