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Ella Stevens* had steeled herself for the painful task of informing a string of companies that her mother had died.
She notified her mother’s insurer, Direct Line. It responded by sending a letter to her late mother thanking her for letting it know of the change. When Stevens complained, Direct Line dispatched its apology and a goodwill cheque to her mother.
She then notified her mother’s electricity supplier, E.ON Next. Rather than sending a bill to the estate, the company’s response was to write complaining that her mother’s direct debit had been cancelled and warning that her charges would increase if she did not reinstate it. It followed this up with two bills demanding payment within seven days.
Stevens notified her mother’s gas supplier, British Gas. It replied with a letter in incomprehensibly poor English, followed by bills addressed with a cheery “hello” to her late mother.
She notified Facebook, which offered her late mother its condolences over her loss and at the same time informed her it was memorialising her account.
“It’s been excruciating,” Stevens says. “I don’t understand how these huge companies can treat something so common, but that requires sensitivity, with such a lack of care.”
Three of the four companies apologised to Stevens after Guardian Money got in touch. E.ON said it was reviewing its bereavement procedures, and Direct Line promised to update its IT system to prevent a recurrence of the mistake. British Gas said the wording of the bills should have made clear that payment was not expected until probate had been granted. Facebook did not respond.
Poor communications
Stevens’s experience is not an isolated one. Bereaved families who have contacted Guardian Money report being thwarted by poor communications, unnecessary bureaucracy and unreasonable delays when they notify companies of the death of a customer. Some claim they have been financially penalised because slow responses have delayed probate applications or because of failures to close accounts.
A bank sent a credit card default notice to a customer’s widower three months after he had informed the bank of her death. Several readers have received letters and bills addressed to late relatives after reporting their deaths to banks and utilities firms.
In the most egregious case seen by Guardian Money, a 91-year-old widow was left for three months without access to her money after her bank mistakenly recorded her as deceased and froze her account when she reported the death of her husband. Branch staff refused to deal with her complaint because the system said she was dead.
Recent reports by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found widespread failings in bereavement support among banks and insurance companies. The regulator concluded that disjointed processes, inexperienced staff and inadequate technology were in some cases forcing relatives to repeat information about a death on each call, and complicating access to accounts of the deceased.
Under the FCA’s consumer duty regime, which first came into force in 2023, financial firms are required to support customers in vulnerable situations and ensure they are not disadvantaged by systems and processes. Most large service providers spell out a bereavement policy on their websites, but some fail to follow through in practice.
Similarly, the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, expects companies to offer effective and tailored support to the bereaved customers under its consumer vulnerability strategy.
A range of obstacles
Despite working in financial services as the manager of an investment company, Mark Sanderson was surprised by the difficulties he faced when his father died.
“The experience of managing my own father’s financial affairs has revealed a stark gap between the level of service many firms claim to offer and what they actually deliver in these moments of vulnerability,” he says.
“I encountered a bewildering range of obstacles: unnecessarily complicated forms, impossible-to-reach customer service representatives, long response times and a general lack of transparency. I’m certain that without my experience working in financial services, I would not have been able to navigate the process.”
Sanderson says companies should offer one-stop channels of communication to bereavement support agents, who can guide relatives sympathetically through the process instead of forcing them to navigate convoluted call centres.
He is calling for simplified paperwork to replace the “dauntingly complex” forms he had to fill in, and investment in technology to allow documents to be uploaded and signed digitally and the status of a case to be tracked online.
“One of the most distressing aspects was the lack of certainty over whether my documents had been received,” Sanderson says. “In some cases I was left waiting days for any acknowledgment, leading to unnecessary anxiety.”
These failings are not uncommon, according to the campaign group Fairer Finance.
“Too many institutions still rely on repeated paperwork, inflexible phone lines and opaque decision-making, leaving families to chase approvals and explanations at a time when they can least cope,” says Tim Hogg, its director.
He adds that while a handful of companies have begun to streamline their bereavement procedures, “the majority have yet to make this a priority”.
The FCA says it has written to the companies it surveyed and reminded them of its expectations.
Emad Aladhal, the FCA’s director of retail banking, says: “When banks and building societies get it right for their customers, they can make a real difference at a difficult time. But when they fail to recognise and respond to customers who need more help, it adds to the stress. All firms should consider where they can make improvements.”
Which companies to inform when someone dies
Make a list with headings to help you work out which companies will have to be contacted. This will vary depending on the person’s financial affairs, and whether there is a spouse or partner who shares some of their property and accounts.
MoneyHelper, a government-sponsored website, gives details of who needs to be informed and when and tells you what, if any, costs will be involved with the administration.
Companies will require a death certificate before they can close the account of a deceased customer; some will need a grant of probate or other evidence that you are authorised to act on behalf of the customer’s estate.
It is worth checking with each organisation as soon as possible what documents it needs. Some allow you to fill out an online bereavement form, while others require a phone call. An internet search for the company and its bereavement process should take you to a page explaining what you need to do.
A simpler option is to sign up to a free bereavement service such as Settld. This allows you to submit an online form that simultaneously informs relevant participating companies, from banks to social media, of a customer’s death. The Death Notification Service was set up by the financial services company Equiniti to perform a similar function within the financial sector. One online form will notify all relevant financial firms who have signed up to the platform.
In most cases, you are likely to have to identify the following companies and contact them if accounts were in the deceased’s name, or held jointly with them.
Financial
Banks or building societies.
Pension providers.
Insurers, for example about car, private healthcare, critical illness, vet or travel policies.
Investment companies.
Car leasing or financing firms.
Accountants.
Credit or store card providers.
Property
Mortgage lender, managing agent or landlord as appropriate.
Insurer (buildings and contents).
Energy and water companies.
TV, landline and broadband providers.
Personal
Mobile phone providers.
Solicitor.
Personal or domestic service providers, for example, carers, healthcare services, gardeners or cleaners.
Subscription services.
Financial companies are bound by the Consumer Duty standard, introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority, which requires them to treat vulnerable customers, including the bereaved, promptly and sensitively. Regulators of other sectors such as telecoms and utilities also require companies to have bereavement strategies to ensure relatives are treated fairly.
* Name has been changed
