Guidance only, not legal advice. These are blank letters. You write in the names, the account numbers and the dates before you sign and post anything. Bank policies and probate thresholds change — check each institution's own bereavement page before you rely on a figure here. England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland use different probate systems.
Six letters, all of them blank. Print the set, or take the one you need. Every field is an empty rule for you to write on — the names, the account numbers, the dates and the signature are yours. Nothing in this file is filled in for you.
Working for a hospice, charity, council or carers' service? You're welcome to link the letters, print it, or put it in a bereavement pack — free, no permission needed, nothing expected in return. See everything that's free
Checked against gov.uk and each institution's own published bereavement pages on 11 September 2026. Postal addresses checked 23 August 2026. Bank release thresholds checked 30 August 2026. Every figure on this page carries its own date beside it.
If you would rather not start from a blank page, The Family Handover Kit is the prepared version — the same ground covered for your own household, rather than left for you to fill in. See the Family Handover Kit →
A bereavement team reads hundreds of these a week. The ones that get actioned first are the ones that answer every question before it is asked. Seven things do that. They are the seven fields in the template, in the order the letter prints them.
The reference number is the one people get stuck on. A bank account has a sort code and an account number. A building society passbook often has neither — it has a roll number instead, and it is the only reference the society will search on. If you are holding a passbook and cannot find it, the building society roll number answer shows where it is printed.
One more thing, and it is the one every rival letter leaves out. Put your own address at the top, clearly, as the address to reply to. The institution has to write back to somebody. If the letter does not say where, the reply goes to the deceased's house.
The seven fields, and why each one is there.
| The field | What you write | Why the bank needs it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your reply-to address | Your own full postal address, at the top of the letter | The institution has to write back to someone. Without it, the reply goes to the deceased's address. | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
| The deceased's full name | Full legal name, including middle names, exactly as the bank holds it | A partial name will not match the account record | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
| The deceased's last address | The address the institution has on file, even if it is out of date | It is the second matching field on every bereavement system | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
| Date of death | As on the death certificate, written in full (e.g. 3 August 2026) | Balances, interest and cover are all fixed at this date | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
| Account, policy or roll number | Every reference you hold. A building society passbook uses a roll number. | The only field that finds the holding in one search | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
| Who you are | Executor, administrator, next of kin — and which, plainly | It decides what the institution is allowed to tell you | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
| What you are enclosing | A certified copy of the death certificate; the will, if they ask for it | A photocopy is refused by most institutions | Our est.11 Sept 2026 |
Cross-checked 11 September 2026 against the field set used in our own institution-letter engine, the “before you start” lists published by UK bereavement guides, and the enclosure requirements printed on the bereavement forms of Nationwide, Barclays, HSBC UK, NatWest and Santander UK (each checked 23 August 2026).
Most bereavement post does not go to the branch. It goes to a single national team, often at an address that appears nowhere on the main website. Twenty of those addresses are printed below, each one taken from the institution's own published bereavement page or form, with the date it was checked.
Ten more institutions publish no postal bereavement address at all. They are listed too, with what they publish instead. An empty row would be more comfortable to print than an honest one; it would also be useless.
Where to post a notification letter — twenty UK bereavement addresses, each sourced and dated.
| Institution | Address to post to | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Nationwide Building Society | Bereavement Services · Specialist Customer Support · Nationwide Building Society · Swindon · SN38 3FN | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Barclays | Bereavement Service Centre · Barclays Bank PLC · Leicester · LE87 2BB | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| HSBC UK | HSBC Bereavement Services · Abbey View · Penfold Drive · Wymondham · NR18 0WZ | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| NatWest | Bereavement Services · PO Box 5612 · Manchester · M61 0WN | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | Bereavement Services · PO Box 5612 · Manchester · M61 0WN (same group as NatWest) | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Santander UK | Santander Bereavement Operations · Sunderland · SR43 4FJ | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| TSB Bank | TSB Bereavement Team · TSB Bank plc · PO Box 453 · Mitcheldean · GL14 9LR | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| Yorkshire Building Society | Bereavement Team · Customer Service Centre · Yorkshire Building Society · Yorkshire House · Yorkshire Drive · Bradford · BD5 8LJ | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| Coventry Building Society | Bereavement Team · Oakfield House · PO Box 600 · Coventry · CV3 9YR | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| Skipton Building Society | FREEPOST · SKIPTON BUILDING SOCIETY | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Leeds Building Society | Customer Support Team · Leeds Building Society · PO Box 228 · Leeds · LS1 9LN | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Legal & General (pension post only) | Bereavements · PO Box 809 · Cardiff · CF24 0YL | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Prudential (M&G) | Prudential · Lancing · BN15 8GB | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| Scottish Widows | Scottish Widows · Bereavement Team · Swindon · SN80 1AA | Market ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| Royal London | Customer Services · PO Box 409 · Royal London House · Alderley Park · Congleton Road · Nether Alderley · Macclesfield · SK10 4EL | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Aegon | Aegon and Scottish Equitable Pension and Bonds · Sunderland · SR43 4DS | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Zurich | Zurich Customer Services · Protection Operations · PO Box 4157 · Swindon · SN4 4QB | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| NS&I | NS&I · Sunderland · SR43 2SB | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| HM Revenue & Customs | Bereavement Services · HM Revenue & Customs · BX9 2BS | GOV.UK ↗23 Aug 2026 |
| The Pension Service (DWP) | The Pension Service · Post Handling Site A · Wolverhampton · WV98 1AF | GOV.UK ↗23 Aug 2026 |
L&G's address covers pension post only — their life-claims route publishes a phone number and email, no postal address. HMRC needs no street name or PO box — the postcode BX9 2BS is the whole address, as gov.uk states. NatWest and RBS share a bereavement address — they are the same group, and both publish the same PO box.
What they publish instead.
| Institution | What they publish instead | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lloyds Bank | Online bereavement form, 0800 015 0012, or in branch | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Halifax | Online notification form, or their specialist bereavement line — see the note below | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Bank of Scotland | Online form, 0800 015 0012 (personal banking) | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Aviva | Online form, 0345 268 2194. Product-specific PO boxes exist, but none is published as the bereavement address. | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Standard Life | Phone, secure message, or online form | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| LV= | Online form, or bereavement@lv.com | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Phoenix Life | Online routing, then phone | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| ReAssure | Online notification, then phone | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| Vitality | 0345 602 3523 or 0345 601 0072 | Market23 Aug 2026 |
| NEST | bereavements.nestpensions.org.uk, or 0300 020 1410 | Market23 Aug 2026 |
Halifax publishes two different numbers, both labelled “Specialist Bereavement Team”, on the same page — worth a live call to confirm before treating either as the number. All thirty rows read from each institution's own published bereavement page or form on 23 August 2026. Addresses change; check the institution's own page before posting anything you cannot resend. A wider list — 61 institutions with their bereavement routes — is in the UK bereavement contacts directory.
Send a certified copy of the death certificate, not a photocopy, and keep a note of which institution has which copy. Certified copies cost £12.50 each from the register office, so most executors order several at registration rather than one at a time.
The letter starts a freeze, and that is the point. Once a bank registers a death, the sole accounts stop: no standing orders, no direct debits, no card. A joint account is different — it passes to the surviving holder by survivorship, does not form part of the estate, and keeps operating.
Money can still leave a frozen sole account for three things. The funeral invoice, paid direct to the funeral director. Inheritance tax, paid direct to HMRC. And the probate fee itself. NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds all pay a funeral invoice in full or in part where the balance covers it, and none of them publishes a ceiling — the limit is what is in the account, not a fixed figure.
To pay inheritance tax from a frozen account before the grant, the form is IHT423 — HMRC's Direct Payment Scheme. The bank pays HMRC straight from the deceased's account. The IHT423 walkthrough takes it box by box.
Whether you need probate at all depends on how much the bank is holding, and every bank sets its own line. Eight of them are summarised below; the full sourced index carries more than fifty.
Published sole-account release thresholds — eight UK institutions, with the date checked.
| Institution | Published threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Barclays | £50,000 across sole accounts | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| HSBC UK | £50,000 with a will; £25,000 without. HSBC reserves the right to require a grant below either. | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| Santander UK | £50,000 across sole-name accounts. Overridden by a sole or tenants-in-common mortgage, whatever the balance. | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| Nationwide Building Society | £50,000 across sole accounts | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| NS&I | £5,000 or over, combined holdings — a guide, not a rule. NS&I reserves the right to ask for a grant at any value. | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| NatWest | No published general threshold. Decided case by case through a signed, witnessed indemnity. The widely-quoted £25,000 figure appears only on third-party sites, never NatWest's own. | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| Lloyds Bank | No published general threshold. “It will depend on the products and services held with us.” | Market30 Aug 2026 |
| Halifax | No published general threshold for current and savings accounts. £50,000 (£36,000 in Scotland) is published only for Share Dealing accounts, a different product line. | Market30 Aug 2026 |
Rows 6 to 8 are blank on purpose. Those three banks publish no figure, and printing a number they have not published would be an invention. The full index — more than fifty institutions, each with its own source link and checked date — is at bank bereavement thresholds. first direct, the Co-operative Bank, Virgin Money and Bank of Scotland all publish figures too, and they are on that page rather than duplicated here.
If the balance is over the bank's line, you need the grant. Here is what that costs.
The fees behind a notification letter — England and Wales, with the date checked.
| What | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Probate application fee — estates over £5,000 | £526 | Statute ↗11 Sept 2026 |
| Estates of £5,000 or less | No fee at all | Statute ↗11 Sept 2026 |
| Sealed copies of the grant, ordered with the application | £2 each — £16 each if ordered afterwards | Statute ↗11 Sept 2026 |
| Certified copy of a death certificate | £12.50 | GOV.UK8 Sept 2026 |
| Property disposed of on death without probate — statutory small-payments limit | £5,000 | Statute ↗11 Sept 2026 |
Order the sealed copies with the application. At £2 each they are eight times cheaper than ordering them later, and every institution holding a sole account over its threshold will want to see one. Work out the whole cost with the probate cost calculator.
Nearly every letter that comes back comes back for one of five reasons. None of them is complicated. All of them cost a fortnight.
Most institutions will not accept a photocopy of a death certificate. They want a certified copy — one issued by the register office, £12.50 each. Order several at registration. Ordering them one at a time is the slowest way to do this.
The letter says who died. It often does not say where to write back. Put your own postal address at the top, and write it again on the acknowledgement card before you post it.
A building society searches on a roll number, not a sort code. A pension scheme searches on a member or policy number. Give every reference you hold, and say which is which.
A pension administrator asked to freeze accounts, an insurer asked to confirm balances. Both are the bank letter pointed at the wrong thing, and both get a slower, vaguer answer. Use the letter for that class.
Six letters, six institutions, six different reply windows. Write down the date each one went and the date each reply came. The posting log on the last page of the file is for exactly that. Register the death first — in England and Wales that must be done within 5 days of the medical examiner's office confirming you can.
Notifying the banks is the second week, not the first. The first week is the registration and the death certificates. What follows the letters is the valuation, the grant, and the accounts.