Skip to main content

Review material. This is exploratory research, not an authoritative service or released data product.

# Death and bereavement through estate administration

This is a synthetic `editorial-example`. It contains no real death, person, will, account, asset, debt, tax return or beneficiary. It explains evidence and authority handoffs; it does not decide cause of death, informant status, notification sufficiency, probate or confirmation need, applicant authority, tax, insolvency, distribution or entitlement.

The journey exercises the bereavement ontology, the registration, notification and estate families, and the bounded evidence set.

## Ordinary path

1. Choose the jurisdiction. Use the place of death, residence and estate context to select official routes; do not infer a national process from a common label.
2. Retain the certification or investigation boundary. Record only the synthetic fact that an MCCD or authority output is available, or that a coroner or Procurator Fiscal process controls the next step.
3. Register the death. Supply the selected registrar's required synthetic information and retain the official registration outputs and observation time.
4. Record the funeral dependency. The registration or investigation output can feed a funeral provider, but the provider is not the public registration authority.
5. Notify covered and uncovered bodies. Use Tell Us Once only inside its current coverage. Create separate synthetic notification records for every uncovered public or private organisation.
6. Obtain estate authority if required. Preserve the will or no-will context, inventory, court, tax handoff and exact jurisdictional document.
7. Administer without deciding. Trace assets, debts, tax and later distribution as unresolved or officially evidenced states; use an estate practitioner where the current route or complexity requires professional help.

Registration context | Official route | Authority and time boundary
--- | --- | ---
England and Wales | England and Wales registration | The routed local register office, current service and any coroner instructions control; no Scottish or NI deadline is imported
Scotland | Scottish registration | The Scottish registration authority uses the observed eight-day rule and MCCD route; COPFS controls referred investigations
Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland registration | GRONI and the district registrar use the observed five-day rule except for the Coroners Service boundary

## Notification exception path

Residence or coverage state | Route | Remaining work
--- | --- | ---
Person lived in England, Scotland or Wales and service conditions are met | Tell Us Once through the Tell Us Once service | Retain the observed covered-body list and notify every uncovered public or private organisation separately
Person lived in Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland manual notifications | Use the Northern Ireland Bereavement Service for its benefit-office scope and contact other bodies separately
Tell Us Once unavailable, no reference supplied, or a body is uncovered | Body-specific current route | Record evidence, channel, time, result and complaint boundary without claiming successful data sharing

Tell Us Once is not treated as a universal UK notification service. Its absence or limited coverage never becomes evidence that no notification is required.

## Estate-authority and exception path

Estate jurisdiction | Authority route | Exception boundary
--- | --- | ---
England and Wales | England and Wales probate administered by HMCTS, with HMRC tax dependencies | Will and no-will applicants, whether a grant is needed, caveat, dispute, debt and tax remain current and case-specific
Scotland | Scottish confirmation administered by Scottish Courts, with HMRC tax dependencies | Confirmation, inventory, small or large estate and testate or intestate branches retain Scottish terminology and advice boundaries
Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland probate administered by NICTS, with HMRC tax dependencies | Grant, letters of administration, no-will and debt branches remain Northern Ireland routes

These are not combined into one UK estate process. Disputed authority, insolvency, missing evidence, an unknown will, cross-border property or a missed court deadline is handed to the current official court, tax or qualified professional route.

## Acceptance questions

- Can the graph identify the certification or investigation output that feeds the selected registrar without deciding cause of death?
- Can it show Tell Us Once coverage and every uncovered notification without implying that data sharing succeeded?
- Can it distinguish probate in England and Wales, confirmation in Scotland and probate in Northern Ireland, including their court and HMRC roles?
- Can it distinguish public authorities from funeral, account and professional dependencies while retaining evidence and redress boundaries?