Lloyds bereavement number: 0800 015 0012 (8am–6pm, 7 days)

Dealing with a loved one’s bank accounts is one of the more pressing tasks after a death – other organisations often ask for confirmation that the bank has been told, and household bills may still be going out. This guide covers everything you need to notify Lloyds Bank: the right phone number, what documents to gather, what happens to the accounts, when probate is needed, how to use IHT423 to pay inheritance tax before probate, and how to claim the ISA Additional Permitted Subscription allowance.

Quick reference:

• Phone: 0800 015 0012 (8am–6pm, seven days a week)
• Executor/estate queries: 0800 056 0171 (Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm)
• Online: lloydsbank.com – bereavement notification form
• Probate required if: sole accounts total more than £50,000
• Group benefit: one notification to Lloyds can cover Halifax, Bank of Scotland, and others in the group

How to notify Lloyds Bank of a death

Lloyds offers three ways to make the initial notification: online, by phone, or in branch.

Online form – Lloyds describes this as the quickest way to let them know. The form is at lloydsbank.com/bereavement and can be completed without having every document to hand.

By phone – Call 0800 015 0012, open 8am to 6pm, seven days a week. If you are calling from outside the UK, the number is +44 (0)1733 261630. For executor-specific queries – such as accessing accounts as appointed executor, or questions about outstanding lending – there is a dedicated line: 0800 056 0171, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

In branch – Any Lloyds branch can handle the initial notification. If you are an existing Lloyds customer, bring your debit card. If you are not a customer, bring two forms of identification.

What to tell Lloyds when you get in touch

For the initial contact, you will need:

• The deceased’s full name, date of birth, and address
• The date of death
• Account details if available (sort code, account number, or card number)
• Your name, relationship to the deceased, and contact details

You do not need all documents before you start. Lloyds can log the notification and follow up on documents separately.

Does notifying Lloyds cover Halifax and Bank of Scotland?

Yes – and this is one of the most useful things to know. Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, Clerical Medical, MBNA, and Birmingham Midshires are all part of Lloyds Banking Group. When you notify Lloyds, they will also pass the notification to the other group companies – provided the deceased held accounts or products with them.

This means a single call or online form may cover multiple institutions. Confirm with the bereavement team exactly which group companies have been updated. Do not assume the notification has covered every group entity without checking.

If the deceased held an account with Halifax separately, our guide to notifying Halifax has the full process – but if you notify Lloyds first, Halifax should be covered automatically.

If the deceased held accounts with Bank of Scotland, the same group notification applies. See our guide to notifying Bank of Scotland for the full process, including the separate Scottish confirmation procedure.

If the deceased held a pension, life insurance, or investments with Scottish Widows, see our guide to notifying Scottish Widows – it explains the separate claims process for each product type, including how expression of wishes forms affect pension death benefit payments.

Death Notification Service: notify multiple banks at once

The Death Notification Service (DNS) is a free service that lets you notify multiple participating banks and financial institutions through a single online form at deathnotificationservice.co.uk. Lloyds Bank is a member, along with 31 other institutions including Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Santander, Nationwide, Scottish Widows, MBNA, M&S Bank, and Clerical Medical.

The DNS handles the initial notification only – you will still need to contact Lloyds directly to provide documents, settle accounts, and release funds. But if the deceased held accounts at more than one participating institution, the DNS can save several separate phone calls.

The DNS is operated by Equinifa in partnership with UK Finance. The complete current member list is shown during the notification process at the DNS website.

Tell Us Once is separate. The government’s Tell Us Once service notifies HMRC, DWP, DVLA, the Passport Office, and local councils – but it does not cover banks or financial institutions. The DNS is the bank equivalent.

What documents you’ll need

Lloyds requires two categories of document: proof of death and proof of your identity.

Proof of death – one of the following:

• Original death certificate from the register office
• Interim death certificate issued by a coroner
• Coroner’s certificate (where the full certificate is delayed)

Proof of your identity:

• By phone: Lloyds verifies your identity through security questions – no documents needed to start
• In branch: your Lloyds debit card if you are a customer; or two forms of ID (such as a valid passport or driving licence with a utility bill or council tax statement) if you are not a customer

If the estate requires probate, Lloyds will also ask for the grant of probate (if there is a will) or letters of administration (if there is no will). In Scotland, this is known as a certificate of confirmation.

If you are dealing with several organisations at the same time, it is worth ordering several certified copies of the death certificate from the register office. In England and Wales, each copy costs £11 – see gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate. Keep originals safe and use certified copies wherever possible.

What happens to the accounts

For a full overview of how bank accounts are handled across the UK – including joint accounts, probate thresholds, and the Death Notification Service – see what happens to a bank account when someone dies.

Sole accounts

When Lloyds is notified, any accounts held solely in the deceased’s name are frozen. This means:

• All cards are cancelled
• Cheque books are cancelled
• Direct debits and standing orders stop immediately
• Interest charges and fees are halted
• The balance is held until the estate is settled
• Interest continues to accrue on savings until formal closure

The freezing happens quickly after notification. Plan ahead for any bills that were being paid from the deceased’s sole accounts. If a direct debit was covering a shared household expense – council tax, utilities, broadband, insurance – you will need to contact those providers separately and arrange alternative payments. Our guides to providers like British Gas, BT, and Sky explain how to handle those notifications.

Any outstanding overdraft or loan on the deceased’s account does not disappear. It becomes a liability of the estate and must be repaid from estate funds before any remaining balance is released to beneficiaries. Personal representatives are not personally liable for these debts, but they do reduce what the estate ultimately distributes.

Payments that arrive into a frozen sole account after notification – incoming transfers, pension payments, rental income – are typically returned to the sender.

Joint accounts

Joint accounts work differently. When one account holder dies, the surviving account holder automatically becomes the sole owner of the account and the money in it. Lloyds updates the account to the surviving holder’s name.

Direct debits and standing orders on joint accounts are not cancelled – they continue as before. If any of those payments need to change, the surviving account holder should contact each organisation separately.

No probate is required for joint accounts to pass to the surviving holder.

For a full guide to how joint accounts work after a death – including the right of survivorship, what to do if the account is overdrawn, inheritance tax treatment, and Scotland’s different rules – see what happens to a joint bank account when someone dies.

Probate and the £50,000 threshold

Probate (or, in Scotland, confirmation) is the legal process that gives an executor authority to deal with an estate. Lloyds requires it above a certain balance.

If sole accounts total more than £50,000, Lloyds will ask for one of:

• A grant of probate (if there is a will)
• Letters of administration (if there is no will)
• A certificate of confirmation (in Scotland)

Source: Lloyds Bank bereavement service, last verified June 2026.

If sole accounts total £50,000 or less, Lloyds may be able to release funds without probate – typically through a small estates process. The bereavement team will advise you during the initial contact.

Joint accounts do not count towards this threshold – they pass to the surviving holder automatically.

For guidance on whether probate applies to a particular estate and how to apply, see gov.uk/applying-for-probate or call the Probate Service helpline on 0300 303 0648. You can apply yourself, use a solicitor, or use one of the fixed-fee probate services available – Lloyds does not require you to use any specific provider.

How Lloyds compares on probate thresholds

All major UK banks have converged on the same £50,000 threshold. Lloyds Banking Group increased its limit to £50,000 in 2024, up from £25,000.

Source: helpafterloss.co.uk/blog/bank-probate-thresholds-2026, last verified June 2026.

Note: each brand within Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland) applies its own threshold independently – balances are not combined across group companies.

IHT423: paying inheritance tax before probate

If the estate is liable for inheritance tax (IHT), Lloyds participates in HMRC’s Direct Payment Scheme. This allows Lloyds to transfer money from the deceased’s accounts directly to HMRC to cover all or part of the IHT due – without waiting for probate to be granted.

This matters because HMRC requires at least some inheritance tax to be paid before it will issue a grant of probate, yet a grant of probate is normally required to access the deceased’s funds. The Direct Payment Scheme breaks that deadlock.

How to use IHT423 with Lloyds:

1. Obtain a payment reference number from HMRC (via the IHT400 account)
2. Complete form IHT423 – one form per account you want to pay from
3. Submit IHT423 to Lloyds (the Lloyds estate administration team handles this)
4. Lloyds transfers the specified amount directly to HMRC

You will need to become a recognised personal representative with Lloyds before they will act on IHT423 – the bereavement team will guide you through this when you contact them. The process can be started before probate is granted, which is precisely the point.

Source: gov.uk – pay inheritance tax from the deceased’s bank account, last verified June 2026.

ISA Additional Permitted Subscription (APS)

If the deceased held a cash ISA or stocks and shares ISA with Lloyds, their surviving spouse or civil partner is entitled to an Additional Permitted Subscription (APS) – an extra ISA allowance equal to the value of the deceased’s ISA at the date of death (or when the ISA closes, if higher).

This is separate from the normal annual ISA allowance. A surviving spouse can use the APS on top of their own annual allowance in the same tax year.

Key points:

• The APS is available to surviving spouses and civil partners only – not other beneficiaries
• You do not have to inherit the ISA itself to be entitled to the APS allowance
• The deadline for using the APS is three years from the date of death, or 180 days after the completion of estate administration – whichever is later
• You can use the APS allowance at any ISA provider, not just Lloyds
• Lloyds should raise the APS when you register the bereavement, but you may need to ask

When you notify Lloyds of the death, tell the bereavement team if the deceased held an ISA and ask them to confirm the APS value. If staff are unfamiliar with the term, ask specifically about the “inheritance ISA allowance for surviving spouses.”

Source: gov.uk – manage additional permitted subscriptions into an ISA, last verified June 2026.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland – In Scotland, the equivalent of grant of probate is called confirmation, granted by the Sheriff Court. When dealing with Lloyds, the same £50,000 threshold applies, but you provide a certificate of confirmation rather than a grant of probate. The certificate of confirmation lists each asset in the estate individually; Lloyds will ask to see the entries covering their accounts. For estates where the £50,000 threshold is not exceeded, Lloyds applies the same small estates process as in England and Wales.

If the deceased held accounts with Bank of Scotland (part of Lloyds Banking Group), note that Bank of Scotland has a presence in Scotland that Lloyds itself does not. Notification to Lloyds should cover Bank of Scotland via the group process, but confirm this with the bereavement team.

Northern Ireland – The probate process in Northern Ireland is administered by the Probate Office in Belfast rather than the Probate Service in England and Wales, but the output – a grant of probate or letters of administration – is the same document and is accepted by Lloyds in the same way. IHT400 must be accompanied by IHT421 (rather than the standard form) for Northern Ireland estates.

How long does it take?

The timeline depends on the complexity of the estate.

Source: Lloyds Bank bereavement service guide, last verified June 2026.

For a detailed breakdown of probate timelines and what affects them, see our guide to how long probate takes.

The most common cause of delay is incomplete documentation. Providing the death certificate and any probate documents as soon as they are available reduces unnecessary back-and-forth.

Things to watch out for

Sole account direct debits stop immediately. If household bills were set up on the deceased’s sole account, they stop as soon as Lloyds freezes it. Utilities, insurance, council tax, and subscriptions can all be affected. Work out which bills came from which account before you call.

The group notification is not automatic for every entity. Lloyds will notify Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, Clerical Medical, MBNA, and Birmingham Midshires if the deceased held accounts there – but only if you prompt them to confirm which entities have been updated. Do not assume all group accounts are covered without asking.

Incoming payments are returned, not absorbed. Payments arriving into a frozen sole account – pension payments, rental income, employer salary – are sent back to the originator. Contact the relevant organisations (DWP, pension providers, employers) separately to stop these before they cause complications.

Funeral costs can be paid directly. Lloyds can make a direct payment to a funeral director from the deceased’s account before the estate is formally closed and before probate is granted. Raise this with the bereavement team early if funeral costs are a concern – it can ease significant financial pressure on families waiting for the estate to settle.

Debt is settled from the estate, not forgiven. Overdrafts, personal loans, or credit balances in the deceased’s name are recovered from estate funds before anything is distributed to beneficiaries. If debts exceed assets, the estate is insolvent – beneficiaries do not inherit personal liability, but they receive nothing.

You can notify before you have all documents. Lloyds will let you start the process with just the basic details – name, date of birth, date of death. Documents can follow later. There is no reason to wait.

Ask about the APS if the deceased held an ISA. Staff awareness of the Additional Permitted Subscription has been inconsistent. If you are a surviving spouse and the deceased had an ISA, raise it explicitly.

Summary

To notify Lloyds Bank after a death, use the online notification form or call 0800 015 0012 (8am–6pm, seven days a week). Probate is required if sole accounts total more than £50,000. For executor queries, use the dedicated line 0800 056 0171 (Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm).

If the deceased held accounts with other Lloyds Banking Group companies – including Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, or MBNA – one notification to Lloyds should cover them. Ask the bereavement team to confirm which group entities have been updated.

If IHT is owed on the estate, ask about the IHT423 Direct Payment Scheme – Lloyds can transfer funds directly to HMRC before probate is granted. If the deceased held an ISA, ask about the Additional Permitted Subscription allowance for surviving spouses.

For guides to other UK banks, see our pages on notifying Halifax, notifying Barclays, notifying NatWest, notifying Santander, and notifying Nationwide. If the deceased held a Barclaycard credit card, note that it is separate from any Barclays bank account – see our Barclaycard bereavement guide for the dedicated contact number and process.