The letter from the bank says it cannot discuss the account; the solicitor who made the will has retired; the pension nobody can name paid into an account nobody can find. An executor’s first months are spent finding out what the estate is, and the law gives you more standing than the counter staff suggest. This page is what you are entitled to and where each thing is found.
What the law asks of you
The Administration of Estates Act 1925 sets the duty in one line: a personal representative, the executor or administrator, must collect and get in the real and personal estate of the deceased and administer it according to law (Administration of Estates Act 1925, section 25, checked 1 November 2026).
Finding the assets is the first half of that duty, and it starts before any grant.
GOV.UK draws the line at the other end. It says you should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you have got probate (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: what is probate, checked 1 November 2026). Gathering information, valuing the estate and paying any Inheritance Tax come first, and our how probate works page sets the steps in order.
Finding the will
Wills are kept in four places. With the deceased’s papers at home; with a solicitor, who stores wills for clients; with HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which runs a deposit scheme for a one-off fee of £24 (GOV.UK, checked 1 November 2026); or with a bank. Ask each in writing with a copy of the death certificate.
GOV.UK’s probate search is for the other end of the process. It lets you order a copy of a probate record, including a will if there is one, and a new record goes online approximately 14 days after probate has been issued (GOV.UK, Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales), checked 1 November 2026). It cannot find a will before a grant. The National Will Register is a private register run by a company, not a government service, and a search there is paid for.
If no will can be found, the estate passes under the intestacy rules and the person entitled applies for letters of administration; our letters of administration page covers who that is. Case law, not GOV.UK, adds a warning: a will known to have existed that was last in the deceased’s own keeping and cannot be found can be treated as revoked. Evidence of where it was kept and who last saw it matters, and it is a point to raise with a solicitor.
Banks, and the data protection excuse
GOV.UK says to contact the financial organisations the person who died used to find out whether you will need probate to get access to their assets, and that every organisation has its own rules (GOV.UK, Applying for probate: what is probate, checked 1 November 2026). No government figure exists for the balance above which a bank insists on a grant; each bank publishes its own.
What a bank cannot do is refuse you information about the deceased’s own account on data protection grounds. The Data Protection Act 2018 defines personal data as information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual (Data Protection Act 2018, section 3, checked 1 November 2026). The ICO’s guidance says information about a deceased person does not constitute personal data and is not subject to the UK GDPR (ICO, checked 1 November 2026). Citing both in writing may help, though a bank’s own policy on what it releases before a grant still applies. Other people’s data mixed into the records is a different matter.
GOV.UK adds that money owned with others passes automatically to the surviving owners unless they had agreed otherwise, so a joint account is not part of the search. Banks belong to an industry scheme, the Death Notification Service, that lets one notification reach several of them; it is a trade-body arrangement, not a legal right.
Tracing what there was
Tell Us Once reports the death to most government organisations in one go, including HMRC, the DWP, DVLA, the Passport Office, the council and public sector pension schemes. GOV.UK says to use it within 28 days of getting the reference number (GOV.UK, tell us once, checked 13 September 2026). Our Tell Us Once page covers what it does and does not reach.
For a pension, GOV.UK’s Pension Tracing Service gives contact details for a scheme from the name of an employer or provider, and GOV.UK says it cannot tell you whether there is a pension or what it is worth (GOV.UK, Find pension contact details, checked 1 November 2026). Old payslips and bank statements are the way to the employer’s name.
For property, a Land Registry title register costs £7 and shows who owns it, the price paid and any charges (GOV.UK, Search for land and property information, checked 1 November 2026). For national savings, NS&I’s deceased customer process asks for the customer’s full name, address, date of birth and date and place of death. It says Premium Bonds can remain eligible for the draw for 12 months after the date of death, and that it asks for a grant where savings total £5,000 or more (NS&I, checked 1 November 2026). Dormant bank accounts are traced through My Lost Account, an industry service run by the banks and building societies with NS&I, not a government one.
The tax side
HMRC’s bereavement and deceased estate line is 0300 322 9620, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm (GOV.UK, bereavement and deceased estate, checked 13 September 2026). GOV.UK says you must pay any debts and settle the taxes for the person who died, which can include a Self Assessment return for income earned before death (GOV.UK, Settling debts and taxes, checked 1 November 2026).
Inheritance Tax is the larger question and comes before the grant. Our Inheritance Tax forms page covers which estates report to HMRC, which do not, and when the tax is due.
Protecting yourself from unknown debts
The Trustee Act 1925 lets a personal representative give notice by advertisement in The Gazette, and in a local newspaper where land is involved. The notice requires anyone with a claim to send particulars within a time of not less than two months (Trustee Act 1925, section 27, checked 1 November 2026).
A representative who waits out the notice and then distributes is protected from claims that surface afterwards.
GOV.UK puts it as an instruction: place a notice in The Gazette giving any creditors two months to claim anything they are owed, and do not distribute the estate’s assets until the two months is up (GOV.UK, Settling debts and taxes, checked 1 November 2026). Our probate deadline planner puts the end of the notice period in your calendar with the rest of the dates.
Records a solicitor or accountant will not release
Ask in writing, with the death certificate and the will or grant naming you, for the file and any documents held for the deceased. No government guidance was found on a personal representative’s right to a deceased client’s file, so the request rests on asserting your role in writing, with the grant once you have it.
If the firm will not engage, the complaints route and the Legal Ombudsman on our solicitor problems page apply to a firm’s handling of a deceased client’s matter as they do to a live one.
No government guidance covers safe deposit boxes. Access is governed by the provider’s own terms, so ask the provider what it needs from a personal representative.
If there is nobody
Where someone dies with no will and no known family, GOV.UK says their property passes to the Crown as ownerless property, known as bona vacantia (GOV.UK, Claim or refer an unclaimed estate, checked 1 November 2026). The Government Legal Department publishes the list of unclaimed estates, and a relative who finds a name on it can claim.
An executor who cannot find beneficiaries is in a different position, and the Gazette notice above is the first step there too.