You can download our handy Bereavement PDF document here.
You’ll need to register the death at any local registry office (within 5 days in England and Wales and 8 days in Scotland). Once you’ve registered the death you will be given a death certificate.
We will need:
After receiving the death certificate and ID, we will provide you with the final balance, an Authority to Close form and request any additional ID/documentation.
If you need to advise us of a bereavement, please complete the form below. In order to start the process we will need the death certificate, but in the meantime the account will be frozen.
If you would like to talk with a member of our dedicated Bereavement Team, you can call us between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.
Bereavement Team
Customer Service Centre
Yorkshire Building Society
Yorkshire House
Yorkshire Drive
Bradford
BD5 8LJ
There are some additional documents we’ll need to close an account. These depend on how much money is held in the name of the person who has passed away. Please select an option below to see what is needed and where it can be obtained:
Please take care to ensure that the closure forms are signed by all Personal Representatives/Executors and that relevant documentation is correct.
| Documentation Required | Where obtained | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1. 'Following Bereavement Authority to Close' Declaration & Indeminity form. 2. Identification for all executors (see above). |
The Authority to close form can be obtained from our Bereavement Team or downloaded here. | This form should be completed by the next of kin or the executors if the deceased left a will. |
| Documentation Required | Where obtained | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The original Grant of Representation Document ( Grant of Probate/Letters of Administration 2. Identification for all executors (click here for acceptable forms of Identification) |
The Authority to Close Form can be obtained from our Bereavement Team or downloaded here. Grant of Representation Document can be obtained from The Probate Registry. | The next of kin can apply to the Probate Registry to obtain the grant. If you need any help obtaining a Grant of Representation (Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration) then you can contact the Probate Registry on 0300 123 1072. Alternatively you can pay a legal advisor to do this for you. |
As soon as we have the correct documents we will then send you a cheque or transfer funds to the nominated account(s) as requested and close the account.
Sole accounts held by the person who has died will be frozen (excluding any interest earned) until the balance can be settled. This means that money cannot be paid into or taken out of the account, other than limited withdrawals for urgent expenses. Our Bereavement Team will be able to give you further information on this so call them on 01242 874 901.
Regular payments such as Direct Debits and standing orders will be cancelled. You may need to contact the relevant organisations to arrange payments.
Where the date of death is:
An account will remain a continuing account of a deceased investor until the earlier of:
Spouses including civil partners can inherit their loved one’s ISA allowance due to the launch of Additional Permitted Subscription (APS1) by the HMRC on 6 April 2015 providing the deceased investor and the surviving spouse were living together as at the date of death.
If your spouse/civil partner had an ISA and passed away between 3 December 2014 and 5 April 2018, you can increase your ISA allowance under the APS scheme. The size of this extra allowance is equal to what your partner had in their ISA when they died. Even if your spouse/civil partner left the funds in their ISA to someone else, you will still inherit the ISA allowance they have built up over the years. This will transfer to you as an APS allowance and could help your money go further by increasing the amount of interest you can earn tax free.
Your allowance (APS1) will be the value of your spouse/civil partners ISA’s when they passed away, which includes any interest earned up to the date of death.
In addition, from 6 April 2018, where the ISA investor dies on or after the 6 April 2018, any ISA(s) held can remain tax-free in a continuing account of a deceased investor (APS2).
The ‘continuing account of a deceased investor’ will cease on whichever is the earliest of the following:-
The APS 2 allowance is
Please read the leaflet Obtaining additional ISA allowances following the death of your spouse or civil partner or view our Additional Permitted Subscriptions (APS) FAQ's for more information. If you would like to discuss any aspects of the APS allowance with a member of the Society you can contact our Bereavement team on 0345 166 9229 Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm.
You have the option to keep them open until their first maturity after the date of death. If you don't want to do this we will close the bond without any loss of interest. Please let us know what you’d like to do by contacting the Bereavement Team, or discussing it with your local branch.
The person responsible for handling the deceased’s estate is normally named in the will (and is called an Executor). They’ll need to sort out the estate and ensure that the deceased’s wishes are followed. If there’s no will an Administrator will be appointed instead.
It’s normally a very daunting task at the most difficult of times and we aim to make this as simple as possible for you, by providing the instructions for specific accounts/scenarios in the section above. You can also call our Bereavement Team on 0345 166 9229.
Funds held in the estate will be frozen (excluding any interest earned) however certain payments can be made from the customer’s account including:
For definitions, please refer to our Bereavement Glossary of Terms.
