What to sort out before someone dies: a UK planning guide

Most of the difficulty of administering an estate comes from not knowing things. Where the will is. Which bank held the savings. Whether there was a second pension. Almost all of it can be written down in advance, while the person is still here to answer.

This guide is for anyone who wants to help a parent, partner, or other family member get their affairs in order. It also works if you are doing it for yourself.

None of this needs to happen in one sitting. One conversation, one folder, one afternoon at a time is plenty.

Having the conversation

Talking about death with someone you love is uncomfortable. There is no version of it that isn't. A few things make it easier.

Pick a calm moment. Not a birthday. Not a hospital waiting room. A quiet afternoon at the kitchen table works better than a big sit-down meeting.

Make it about admin, not mortality. "If anything ever happened, I would have no idea where to start" is easier to hear than "when you die". You are asking for a filing system, not a farewell.

Start with one question. Usually: "Do you have a will, and do you know where it is?" That single answer opens most of the rest.

Offer to do yours too. Doing the same exercise for yourself changes the tone completely. It becomes something you are sorting out together.

Let them keep control. They do not have to tell you what is in the will, or how much anything is worth. Knowing that a document exists and where it is kept is enough to make an executor's job far more straightforward.

Write the answers down as you go. People rarely remember a conversation like this in the detail they will need later.

If it does not go well the first time, leave it. Come back in a few months. Plenty of families need two or three goes.

The will

This is the single most useful thing to establish.

Is there a will? If there isn't, the estate is dealt with under the intestacy rules, and the law decides who inherits. That may not match what the person actually wants, and it can be harder for the family. A solicitor or a will-writer can usually sort a straightforward will out quite quickly.

Where is the original kept? Executors need the original document, not a photocopy. Wills are commonly held at home, with the solicitor or will-writer who prepared it, or with a will storage service. If it is in a bank safety deposit box, it is worth checking who is allowed to open the box after a death, because that can be slower than people expect.

Who are the executors? Executors are the people named to carry out the will. It helps enormously if they know they have been named, and if they know roughly what is expected of them. Being told for the first time by a solicitor, in the week after a death, is a lot to absorb.

Is it still up to date? A will written before a divorce, a remarriage, a new grandchild, or a house move may no longer say what the person thinks it says. A quick review every few years, and after any big life change, is a sensible habit.

Has it been registered? Some people record the existence and location of their will on the National Will Register. It is optional, but it makes the document much easier to trace.

Power of attorney

This one is not about death at all. It covers what happens if someone becomes unable to make their own decisions while they are still alive, through illness, an accident, or dementia.

In England and Wales, this is a Lasting Power of Attorney. There are two types: one for property and financial affairs, and one for health and welfare. Each is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.
In Scotland, it is a continuing power of attorney for finances and a welfare power of attorney for care decisions, registered with the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland.
In Northern Ireland, an Enduring Power of Attorney covers property and financial affairs.

It has to be set up while the person still has the mental capacity to make the decision. Once that capacity is gone, the family has to apply to a court instead, which takes longer and costs more.

Worth knowing: a power of attorney ends the moment the person dies. From that point the executors take over. The two roles do not overlap, and they are not always the same people.

What they own, and what they owe

Executors have to build a full picture of the estate before they can apply for probate, or Confirmation in Scotland. Tracking down forgotten accounts is one of the slowest parts of the job.

A simple list is all that is needed. Not balances. Just where things are.

Money and savings

Current accounts and savings accounts, with the bank or building society name
Premium Bonds and other NS&I products
Cash ISAs
Any accounts held abroad

Investments and shares

Stocks and shares ISAs, investment platforms, share certificates
Any employee share schemes, past or present

Pensions

Every pension, including old workplace schemes from decades-old jobs
The provider name for each one
Whether a nomination form, sometimes called an expression of wish, has been completed and is still correct

Pensions often pass outside the will, straight to whoever is named on the nomination form. That form is easy to forget for years. It is well worth checking.

Property

The address, and whether the title is registered with the Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, or Land and Property Services in Northern Ireland
Whether it is owned outright or with a mortgage
How it is jointly owned, if it is. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the distinction is between joint tenants and tenants in common. In Scotland the title may include a survivorship destination. It changes who inherits, so it is worth knowing.

Insurance

Life insurance policies, and whether any are written in trust
Home, car, travel, and any private medical cover

Other things of value

Vehicles, jewellery, art, collections
Any business interests, shareholdings, or property let out to tenants

What they owe

Mortgage, loans, credit cards, overdrafts
Equity release or lifetime mortgage arrangements
Any money lent to or borrowed from family

Documents worth finding now

Executors need a surprising number of certificates. Locating them in advance saves weeks of ordering replacements.

Birth certificate
Marriage or civil partnership certificate
Decree absolute or dissolution order, if divorced
National Insurance number
Passport and driving licence
Recent tax returns, and the details of an accountant if they use one
The will, and any letter of wishes kept with it
If they have been widowed: their late spouse's will, the grant of probate or Confirmation, and any inheritance tax paperwork

That last one matters more than it looks. When someone has been widowed, part of their late spouse's unused inheritance tax allowance can often be claimed by their estate. The paperwork from that earlier death is what proves it.

Records of gifts

Gifts made in the seven years before a death can affect the inheritance tax position, so executors are asked about them on the HMRC forms.

Reconstructing years of gifts from memory and bank statements is genuinely hard. A running note is much better. For each gift: the date, who received it, what it was, and roughly what it was worth.

The same applies to regular gifts made out of income, such as paying a grandchild's school fees or topping up a family member's savings each month. These can qualify for an exemption, but only if there is a record of the pattern and of the income it came from.

A notebook or a spreadsheet is fine. It does not have to be formal.

Digital life

Most people now have accounts that outlive them.

A list of important online accounts: email, banking, utilities, subscriptions, photo storage
Where photos and documents are actually stored, whether that is a phone, a laptop, or the cloud
Subscriptions that will keep taking payments until someone cancels them

The safest approach is usually a password manager with a legacy or emergency access feature, or a sealed written note kept with the will. Sharing banking passwords directly is generally against the bank's terms, and executors do not need them anyway. They deal with the bank formally once they have the grant.

Apple and Google both let you nominate someone who can request access to an account after your death. Setting that up takes a few minutes.

Funeral wishes and the practical side

These decisions land on the family within days of a death, often before anyone has slept properly.

Burial or cremation, and any preference about where
Whether there is a prepaid funeral plan, and with which provider
Any deed for an existing burial plot
Music, readings, or a religious or non-religious service
Organ donation wishes, and whether the family knows them
Who should be told, including old friends and former colleagues the family may not know about

Funeral wishes in a will are not legally binding, and the will is sometimes not read until after the funeral. Writing them down separately, and telling someone, works better.

Who to call

A short contact list is one of the most useful pages in the whole folder.

Solicitor, if they have one
Accountant or tax adviser
Financial adviser
Employer or former employer, for pension and payroll purposes
GP surgery
Anyone who holds keys, deeds, or documents on their behalf

Keeping it all together

Once you have gathered this, put it in one place and tell at least one other person where it is.

A physical folder works well. So does a single document, printed and updated occasionally. What matters is that the executors can find it without hunting through the house.

A few practical notes:

Do not attach anything to the original will with staples or paperclips. Marks on the document can raise questions later.
Keep the folder somewhere accessible, not locked in something only the person who died could open.
Review it every couple of years, and after anything significant: a house move, a new pension, a marriage, a divorce, a bereavement.

A short checklist

When the time comes

Doing this work now does not make the loss any smaller. It does mean that the person left holding the paperwork can focus on their family rather than on searching through paperwork and trying to trace accounts.

When that day arrives, EstateCopilot guides UK executors through what follows, one step at a time, across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. If you would like to see what the process involves before you ever need it, you are welcome to have a look at estatecopilot.co.uk.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Estates involving trusts, businesses, farmland, assets abroad, or a disputed will are more involved, and a solicitor is the right person to help with those.