What to do when an LPA donor dies

The death of the donor automatically revokes the LPA. From that point, you have no legal authority to manage the donor’s finances, access their accounts, or make any decisions on their behalf. This applies even if you were closely involved in their day-to-day finances and even if no one has formally notified anyone yet.

You should stop using any payment cards linked to the donor’s accounts, stop making transactions from their bank accounts, and stop acting in any capacity that depends on the LPA. Continuing to operate under the LPA after the donor’s death, even briefly and even with good intentions, can create legal problems for you and for the estate.

There is one narrow exception: you can continue to take steps that are reasonably necessary to protect the estate from loss, provided you do so with urgency and then hand over to the executor. If there is a direct debit about to bounce on a critical bill, for example, using common sense briefly before handing over will generally not be treated as a problem. But it is a very narrow window and should not be stretched.

Understanding the boundary between these two roles is important. An LPA attorney acts during the donor’s lifetime, when the donor lacks capacity. An executor acts after the donor’s death, administering the estate according to the will.

These roles may be held by the same person, or by different people. If you are both attorney and executor, your LPA authority has ended, but you now have a separate and distinct authority as executor once you obtain a grant of probate. Until probate is granted, your ability to deal formally with financial institutions as executor is limited.

If someone else is the executor, your job now is to hand over neatly. That means giving them access to your financial records, the registered LPA document, any correspondence you have held on the donor’s behalf, and anything else relevant to administering the estate. The executor will need to see a clear picture of the donor’s financial position.

Several organisations need to be told about the death promptly. Some of these can be done through the Tell Us Once service on GOV.UK, which notifies multiple government departments in a single step. Others need to be contacted directly.

• The donor’s bank or banks: they will freeze the accounts pending probate
• DWP and HMRC, via Tell Us Once: this stops pension and benefit payments and avoids overpayments that become debts of the estate
• The local authority if they were funding or arranging care
• Any care home or domiciliary care provider
• The donor’s GP and any specialist clinicians who were involved in their care
• Pension providers, insurers, and any investment platforms
• DVLA if the donor had a driving licence
• The electoral register

Banks will typically accept a death certificate and either the executor’s confirmation or a grant of probate to release funds. Small accounts below the bank’s threshold are often released without probate. Larger accounts will require the grant.

Your records as attorney do not become irrelevant at the point of death. They are still important for two reasons. First, the executor will need to understand the donor’s financial position at the point of death and will rely on your records to do so. Second, the OPG can still investigate your conduct as attorney after the donor’s death, and your records protect you in any such review.

Keep all your LPA records for at least seven years after the date of death. This includes bank statements, receipts, decision records, capacity notes, and the annual accounts you produced while acting. Do not destroy anything in the immediate aftermath, even if it seems unlikely anyone will ever ask for it.

It is also worth doing a final financial summary at the point when you hand over to the executor. A clear schedule showing the balances on each account, any outstanding bills, and any financial commitments you were managing will make the executor’s job significantly easier.

Probate is the legal process by which an executor obtains authority to administer the estate. If the donor left a will, the executor named in it applies for a grant of probate. If there was no will, a close relative applies for letters of administration instead.

The grant of probate does not happen immediately. Applications to the Probate Registry typically take several weeks to several months. During that time, most financial institutions will freeze the donor’s accounts. Some small institutions release funds without probate on sight of the death certificate, but banks and investment platforms generally wait for the grant.

As the former attorney, you may be asked by the executor to provide information or documentation that helps with the probate application. This is reasonable and you should cooperate fully. The more organised your records, the smoother this process will be.

Most people reading this will be managing the death of someone they cared for deeply. The administrative demands that arrive in the days and weeks following a death are real, and they can feel overwhelming at a time when you are also grieving.

It is worth knowing that most organisations are understanding about the timescales involved. Banks, HMRC, and care providers have all dealt with bereavement many times. If you explain the situation and are making reasonable progress, most will give you time. You do not need to deal with everything at once.

If you are struggling with the administrative burden, a solicitor experienced in probate and estate administration can take on a significant amount of the work. It costs money, but for complex estates, or when you are simply not in a state to manage it alone, it is a worthwhile option to consider.