Notify us of a Bereavement

We know how difficult it can be when somebody passes away. That’s why we’re here to support you. If your loved one held any products with us or had investments through Skipton's financial advice service, we'll help you understand what to do next.

When someone has passed away

Register the death

You need to do this at a Register Office. See gov.uk/register-a-death for more details.

Legally, you’ll need to register a death within five days in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and within eight days in Scotland, unless the Coroner is investigating it. You’ll be issued with a death certificate.

It’s a good idea to ask for several certified official copies of the death certificate as you may need them for different providers. There’s a small charge for this but it is often more cost effective to ask for copies at the time of registration rather than later on.

Notify us

• Details of the deceased person: their name, address, date of birth, date of death, whether there is a Will and any Skipton account numbers (if known)
• Details of the person notifying us: their name, address, relationship to the deceased person, email address, phone number and when we should contact them (we only call if we need more information or if you ask us to)
• Any additional information you want to give us.

You don't need to send any documents by email. If we need to see documents such as a death certificate, we will let you know how to send these to us.

The person dealing with the estate will have a personal contact every step of the way, who will try and make things as easy as possible.

Once you've told us about a death, even if it is not officially registered with us, payments out of savings accounts held in the sole name of the deceased are frozen. If it's a joint account, control will pass to the other account holder(s) instead.

Provide us with the relevant documents

• A death certificate (or a death certificate verification form) directly from the solicitor acting for the estate. Please note, these can only be accepted for our savings and/or mortgage customers. We can’t accept it for Investment customers because product providers need to see the original death certificate
• Original coroner’s interim certificate (if the cause of death hasn’t been determined)
• A Grant of Representation if already available – this can include a Grant of Probate, Letters of Administration, or Certificate of Confirmation in Scotland.

You can post your document to:

We will return the documents to you, once we have processed them.

What happens next?

We'll write to the personal representative or the solicitor acting for them to request any further information we need. We'll also ask for certain forms to be filled in and returned to us.

The process of sorting out savings depends on the types of account held, the amount of money held in the accounts and if there's a Will. Once we’ve been told about a death, payments from savings accounts held in the sole name of the deceased are frozen. If it's a joint account, once the death is registered, control automatically passes to the other account holder(s).

If there's a mortgage, the personal representatives should carry on making the monthly payments while we make our inquiries, so the loan doesn't fall into arrears and cause complications (the mortgage is a debt of the estate). If this is difficult, our Credit Management team can talk you through your options. You can call them on 0345 850 1766.

Help with accounts

There are different steps you might need to take depending on what type of accounts the customer held. You can find more detailed information on dealing with type of account below.