National Savings & Investments (NS&I) After Death
What Executors Need to Know
NS&I products are everywhere. Around 24 million people in the UK hold Premium Bonds alone, alongside Income Bonds, Direct Saver accounts and Direct ISAs, which makes dealing with NS&I one of the most common tasks any executor will face.
If the person who died held any of these, you are responsible for notifying NS&I and making sure the accounts are dealt with correctly as part of the wider estate administration.
It is a fairly straightforward process once you know the steps, though a few quirks specific to NS&I are worth knowing before you start.
A Detail Worth Knowing Early: Tell Us Once Does Not Cover NS&I
If you have already used the government’s Tell Us Once service to notify other organisations after a death, it is worth knowing that NS&I is not included in that scheme. You need to contact them directly and separately, either by phone, online, or by post using NS&I’s own bereavement process.
This catches a fair number of executors out, since it is easy to assume Tell Us Once has everything covered once it has been used.
What Should Executors Do?
As executor or administrator, your responsibilities with NS&I are broadly the same as with any other financial institution, though the specific process is theirs. You will need to notify NS&I of the death, identify all NS&I products the person held, obtain valuations where required, provide the documentation requested, and then follow NS&I’s instructions for releasing or transferring the funds. Our guide on informing a bank about a death covers the equivalent process for high street banks, which follows a similar shape even though NS&I sits outside the normal banking system.
It is worth keeping copies of all correspondence with NS&I throughout, since questions can arise later during Probate, and having a clear paper trail makes resolving them far easier.
What Documents Are Usually Required?
Depending on the products held and their value, NS&I may ask for an official death certificate, a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration, proof of identity, and completed bereavement claim forms.
If you are not certain what accounts the person held, NS&I also offers a tracing service that can search their records on your behalf, which is worth using if you suspect there may be older or forgotten holdings.
Does Probate Depend on the Value of the NS&I Holdings?
Not always, and this is one of the more useful things to understand early on. NS&I generally only requires a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration where the total NS&I holdings exceed a set threshold, currently £5,000 across all products combined. Where NS&I holdings fall below this figure, executors can often claim the funds with just a death certificate and the completed bereavement form, without waiting for the Grant to come through.
If Inheritance Tax is due on the wider estate but the Grant has not yet been issued, NS&I can, in some circumstances, release funds directly toward that tax bill under HMRC’s Direct Payment Scheme, so it is worth asking about this if the estate’s tax position is still being worked through.
What Happens to Premium Bonds Specifically
Premium Bonds behave a little differently from the rest of NS&I’s products after death. They remain eligible for the monthly prize draw for up to twelve months after the date of death, and executors can choose to leave them in the draw for that full period or cash them in straight away. Any prizes won during that window still form part of the estate and are payable to the beneficiaries.
It is worth noting that Premium Bond prizes are tax-free, whereas interest earned on Direct Saver, Income Bonds and Investment Account balances is taxable income, and this may need to be reported to HMRC as part of the estate’s tax position.
Are NS&I Products Part of the Estate?
Yes. Almost all NS&I savings and investment products form part of the deceased’s estate and need to be included when the estate is valued for Probate and Inheritance Tax purposes. Executors should make sure every NS&I holding has been identified before finalising estate accounts or distributing anything to beneficiaries, since a forgotten account discovered later can complicate matters considerably, including potentially reopening an earlier Inheritance Tax calculation.
For full, current details on notifying NS&I, including their phone lines, online forms and current processing times, their own bereavement guidance is the most reliable source: NS&I’s official guidance for what to do if a customer has died.
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Yes. Notifying NS&I promptly allows the bereavement process to begin, and since NS&I is not covered by the Tell Us Once service, this needs to be done separately rather than assumed to be automatic.
Generally no. The executor or administrator deals with NS&I on behalf of the estate, since they are the ones with legal authority to act, though NS&I can advise beneficiaries on general process questions.
Not always. NS&I typically only requires a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration where the total NS&I holdings exceed £5,000, with smaller amounts often released against a death certificate and completed claim form alone.
They remain eligible for the prize draw for up to twelve months after death, and any prizes won during that time form part of the estate. Executors can choose to keep them in the draw or cash them in straight away.
Premium Bond prizes are tax-free, but interest earned on products like Direct Saver and Income Bonds is taxable income and may need to be accounted for as part of the estate’s tax position.
Related Resources
- Informing a Bank About a Death
- What Is Probate and When Is It Needed?
- Premium Bonds After Death (coming soon)
- Savings Accounts After Death (coming soon)
- Investments After Death (coming soon)