What to do after a bereavement

The five steps below can help you understand what you or your representative (like your solicitor or financial adviser) should do after a loved one passes away.

This process is for customers using Wrap and Fundzone only.

How to contact us

You can inform us of a bereavement by letter, email or telephone.

You can also nominate someone else for us to share information with, if required.

• Phone 0345 279 1001 (call charges may vary)
• Email platforms_deceasedaccounts@abrdn.com
• Write to us at abrdn Client Servicing, Sunderland, SR43 4EE

What you’ll need to tell us

When you contact us, we will need information about the deceased and about you.

About the deceased

• Account number/s (if you have them)
• Full name
• Full address (last known)
• Date of birth
• Date of death
• If there is a surviving spouse or civil partner
• If a Will was left (we will require the original or a certified copy later)
• If Probate will be applied for

About you (or the executor if there is one)

• Full name
• Full address
• Best daytime contact phone number
• Email address
• Relationship to account holder
• Preferred method of contact (phone, email, post)
• Contact details for the personal representative / solicitor (if known)

• We will stop all withdrawals and contributions on all products in the account
• We will halt all trading. Any funds that cannot be held on Platform are sold into cash (such as portfolios managed by discretionary managers)
• If we have a relationship with the deceased, we will inform the appropriate individual(s)

For Wrap cash, Personal Portfolio, ISA, Offshore Bond, Onshore Bond investments

We will stop charges on the account from date of death.

These products may remain invested until we receive instructions from the executor.

Please note that if a bond is held solely in the same of the deceased (single life) then the bonds will be terminated, and the monies held. But if the bond has surviving joint members, then the product and charges will continue.

For self-invested personal pension (SIPP) investments

The administrator of the pension scheme will sell all viable funds into cash and stop charges (including adviser charges) from date of death. But some charges, such as property charges, may continue.

In all cases, we will require a Registrar’s copy of the Death Certificate or an Interim Death Certificate.

The documents we need will depend on where the death occurred, which products were held and the value of investments held. We will let you know what you need to provide, but you can find a summary of what these documents might be below.

If death in England / Wales / Ireland

We will require the Death Certificate and:

• If the account value at date of death is less than £75k, or there are less than £15k of Onshore Bonds, we will also need the Form of Indemnity and Certified copy of Will
• If the account value at date of death is more than £75k, or there are more than £15k of Onshore Bonds, we will also need the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration

If death in Scotland

We will require the Death Certificate and:

• If the account value at date of death is less than £75k, or there are less than £15k of Onshore Bonds, we will also need the Form of Indemnity and Certified copy of Will
• If the account value at date of death is more than £75k, or there are more than £15k of Onshore Bonds, we will also need the Certificate of Confirmation or Letters of Administration

How we return documents

When sending documents, please include a return address so we can return any original documents and Registrar’s copies to you in the post by recorded delivery as quickly as possible.

Other copies of documents are not returned, unless requested.

If you face any issues when trying to access documents or send them to us, you should contact us for more support.

Once we have received all required legal documentation, we will issue the following information within ten working days:

• The valuation of the deceased’s account at the date of death
• The Requirements Letter, detailing the options available
• The Settlement forms for the executor to instruct us how to settle the account

Please note that these will only be issued to the person/s dealing with the administration of the estate (or their representatives).

What will the options be?

Generally, products can be processed in three ways:

• Encashment - this is where investments are sold down into cash and then paid either to a verified bank account, a different abrdn account or to the account of another provider
• In-specie Transfer – this is where investments are moved (re-registered) from the deceased’s account to a different abrdn account or to the account of a third party. This option usually takes around 30 working days to complete
• Combinations of the above are also possible

For ISAs, there may also be an option for a surviving spouse to apply for an Additional Permitted Subscription, providing them with extra ISA allowance and increasing their contribution limit.

This extra allowance will be the same as the amount in the deceased’s ISA on date of death or the value of the ISA when it ceases to be a Continuing ISA.

This can be applied for using the Additional Permitted Subscription application form.

If this is part of a transfer to an external provider, we will contact the provider on the recipient’s behalf.

For products within the deceased’s estate, you must give instructions to us using the Settlement Form we send you. This must be signed by all executors.

Because of this, the value of the account at date of death may be different to the value of the account at date of settlement. The exception to this is with any SIPP investments as these are not included in the estate.

Once settlement has completed, we will issue the Confirmation Letter, detailing what has been done.

We’ll also start monitoring the deceased’s account to check for residual monies for 13 months. This could include incidental payments that may be made into the accounts, like outstanding dividend payments. We will process these payments as per the instructions in the Settlement Form.