The probate deadline planner
The deadlines after a death come from four different GOV.UK guides and one Act of Parliament. Enter the date of death and this lays them out in order, with the source beside each one, as a calendar file you can add to your own.
Four of the dates run from this one.
The medical examiner is the senior doctor who checks the cause of death. The days to register run from their confirmation, not from the death, and GOV.UK says confirmation can itself take a few days.
The registrar gives you the Tell Us Once reference number on this day. Tell Us Once reports the death to most government departments in one go, and its 28 days run from here.
Leave blank if not yet placed. The planner will tell you the rule instead.
Worked out on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Where the dates come from
Registration and Tell Us Once are from GOV.UK's guide to what to do after a death. The Inheritance Tax payment date and the IHT400 deadline are from its guide to valuing an estate. The two-month creditors' notice is from its guide to dealing with an estate. The executor's year is section 44 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925. Every card names its source and the date we last checked it, and our when someone dies page carries the same dates as a table.
What it will not do
It will not guess a date the rule does not give. Registration runs from the medical examiner's confirmation, not the death; Tell Us Once runs from the registrar's reference number; the creditors' notice runs from the day it is placed. Until you enter those, the planner shows the rule in words. It also does not know whether Inheritance Tax is due on the estate, so it shows the tax dates for every estate and repeats GOV.UK's own line that most estates are not taxed.
Common questions
Which dates does the planner work out?
Six from GOV.UK and one from an Act: 5 days to register the death from the medical examiner's confirmation, 28 days for Tell Us Once, the end of the sixth month for Inheritance Tax interest, 12 months for form IHT400, two months from a creditors' notice, the executor's year, and 8 weeks for the Child Benefit Office where it applies.
Why does it ask for more than the date of death?
Because three of the deadlines do not run from the death. Registration runs from the medical examiner's confirmation, which GOV.UK says can take a few days. Tell Us Once runs from the registrar's reference number. The creditors' notice runs from the day it is placed. Leave those blank and the planner shows the rule rather than guessing a day.
Does it cover Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Partly. Registration is 8 days in Scotland rather than 5, and the planner applies that. The Inheritance Tax deadlines are set by HMRC across the UK. Probate itself is different in Scotland, where it is called confirmation, and in Northern Ireland, so the executor's year and the creditors' notice as described here are the England and Wales rules.
Is anything I enter stored?
No. The dates are worked out in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. The calendar file is generated on your device and we keep no copy. Email reminders are a separate, optional step after the answer, and every email has an unsubscribe link and is deleted 30 days after its date.
The steps between these dates are on our how probate works page, and what a beneficiary can do once the executor's year has passed is on when an executor delays.