Bereavement FAQs

A Grant of Representation is a court document that confirms who’s responsible for managing the estate of a deceased person. Depending on the assets and value of the estate, this may not be required. You can find more information on the government website. 

There are three main types of Grant of Representation when dealing with an estate: 

• Grant of Probate – Used when the deceased left a valid will, appointing executors who are able and willing to act. The executors will typically be responsible for managing the deceased persons estate. 

• Letter of Administration – Used where the deceased did not leave a valid will. The administrator (in place of executor) will be responsible for managing the deceased’s estate in line with intestacy laws. 

• Letter of Administration with Will Annexed – Sometimes the executors named in the deceased’s will are unable or unwilling to act. In this case, a Letter of Administration should be applied for so that someone else can take over the responsibility of managing the estate according to the deceased’s will. 

In Scotland, the Grant of Representation will be called a ‘Grant of Confirmation’. You can find out more information on the Citizen’s Advice website. 

You won’t always need a probate solicitor, but we suggest you seek professional advice and support. Managing an estate can be complicated. A solicitor’s role is to help you through the process and bring the legal and technical knowledge to make the process easier.

No, information authority must have been approved by the deceased person before they died. We are unable to approve a Letter of Authority after the date of death.

We provide an advised investment platform and do not provide financial advice. So, beneficiaries will need an adviser if they decide to open a SIPP drawdown product or take out an annuity for example.

It doesn’t need to be the same adviser as the deceased person, but your adviser will need to agree terms of business with us if they’d like to advise you on our products.

If your chosen adviser does not already have an agreement in place with us, they can speak to the sales representative from their area. You can find their details here.

Once we’ve been informed that a person has died, we’ll stop making their pension income payments.

If you were relying on your partner or spouse’s pension payments and need financial support following their death, the government website outlines some of the financial support that may be available to you depending on your circumstances.

The beneficiary decision is made at the discretion of the SIPP trustees. The Wealthtime SIPP does not form part of the deceased person’s estate, however we may still ask for a copy of the individual’s will to help guide us in our investigation and subsequent decision.

We’re unable to confirm any account information, including the value of the SIPP, to anyone who does not already have authority on the account. Authority would include the registered financial adviser or information authority (sometimes called a Letter of Authority), which would need to have been approved by the deceased before they died.

We’re unable to share any information on other beneficiaries, during the investigation or once the investigation has concluded.

 Yes, the SIPP will remain invested while we conduct our bereavement investigation. We will disinvest the assets once the beneficiaries have provided us with their instruction for taking death benefits.

The time this takes will depend on the complexity of the case. Each case is unique and, as such, we are unable to provide a timeline for our bereavement investigation.

We’ll outline the options to beneficiaries in their options letter once the bereavement investigation is complete. These options will usually be:

• Lump sum payment – A one-off payment of the full value of the beneficiary’s death benefits. You do not need a regulated financial adviser for this option.

• Income stream into drawdown – A beneficiary drawdown SIPP will be opened in the beneficiary’s name with the value of their death benefits transferred in. You’ll need a regulated financial adviser for this option.

• Annuities – While we don’t offer annuities on our platform, we can work with the beneficiary’s chosen provider to process this option. You’ll need a regulated financial adviser for this option.

Please note that if you were not a nominated beneficiary (for example if a beneficiary relinquished their rights to you), you may not have the same death benefit options.

To begin the process, we’ll need sight of the original death certificate. Once beneficiaries have been decided by the SIPP Trustees, they’ll be contacted with an options letter to outline the death benefit options available to them and requirements for each option.

We’ll ask for a certified copy of the beneficiaries photographic ID (such as a passport or driving licence) and a certified copy of their bank statement. This is to verify the identity and bank account of the beneficiary.

Payments may be taxed under PAYE if the person who died passed away after turning 75 years old. If they died before turning 75, PAYE will apply if benefits are not paid out within two years of the date we were notified of their death.

You can choose to relinquish your beneficiary rights. To do this, we require a wet-signed letter from the identified beneficiary (accompanied by a certified copy of their ID) confirming they wish to relinquish their right and who they wish to relinquish to. 

Please note that the people or person you choose to relinquish to may not be entitled to the same death benefit options, compared to nominated beneficiaries of the deceased. We will still need to complete the relevant identity checks on the individuals who will receive the death benefits.

An Executor’s Payment Instruction, or EPI, is the formal instruction given by an executor to release or transfer funds from an estate account to beneficiaries or creditors. This is only required for Non-SIPP accounts, for example – an ISA or GIA. 

It is used to clearly state how the executors wish to receive the money. This can be received as a cash payment to be paid either directly to the executors, or to be paid to a solicitor’s account details. 

We will require additional documentation for payment out which is as follows: 

• For payment to executor’s bank account: Certified copy of a recent bank statement
• For payment to a solicitor’s bank account: Confirmation of solicitor’s bank details on solicitors headed paper

Payment can also be made as an internal transfer to another account held on the Wealthtime platform. 

If your spouse or civil partner held an Individual Savings Account (ISA) and died on or after 3 December 2014, you can inherit an additional ISA allowance. It’s called the Additional Permitted Subscription (APS) ISA allowance. This APS ISA allowance is in addition to your personal annual ISA allowance. You qualify for it regardless of whether you inherit the assets from your spouse or civil partner’s ISA as cash or shares.

Most people with spouses or civil partners who held an ISA and who died on or after 3 December 2014 will be eligible for an APS ISA. The only reason you might not qualify is if you were not living with your spouse or civil partner when they died, because you were separated under a court order or a deed of separation, or in circumstances where your marriage or civil partnership had broken down. 

APS is only available if paid within three years of the deceased’s date of death. 

Yes, Wealthtime will request physical documents in most cases. If you’re unable to post these to us, please speak to our team to discuss your options. 

Wet signing means to sign a physical document in ink by hand. If we ask you to wet sign a document, we will be unable to accept a digital signature. It’s important to complete your documents in the way we request, otherwise this could cause delays.

To ‘certify a document’ means to verify that a copy of a document is a true and accurate representation of the original. This is an important part of the due diligence process and helps us to make sure that the documents and instructions we receive from you are valid.

We can accept certification from a professional person or someone ‘of good standing’ in your community.  

For example: 

• Financial Adviser
• Solicitor
• Councillor
• Minister of Religion
• Chartered Accountant
• Bank/Building Society
• Police Officer
• Doctor
• Dentist
• The Post Office

The person certifying your documents cannot be:

• Yourself
• Living at your address
• In a relationship with you
• Someone related to you

To certify your document, the person should have seen the original document so that they can verify that your photocopy is a true copy. Ask the person to certify the photocopy by: 

• Writing ‘certified to be a true copy of the original seen by me’ on the document
• Wet-signing and dating it
• Printing their name under the signature
• Adding their occupation, address and telephone number

You can find more information on document certification on the government website.