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The Final Balance / The deadline
The clock, and the point at which the money stops waiting
How long a death claim takes, and what happens if nobody claims
A claim can be finished in three months and it can sit for three years. The difference is almost never the operator: it is the estate, and whether anybody knows the account exists. This page is about the two ends of that clock, and the fallback that catches the accounts nobody ever claims.
Desk spec
- median
- 84 days
- nine in ten
- 310 days
- stalled
- 46
- to the state
- 12
the authorityThe document that lets an operator deal with an estate. Of 600 sampled claims, 372 were made on a grant of probate, 148 on letters of administration after an intestacy, 54 under a small-estate exemption, and 26 were refused for producing none of them.
the balance layersWhat the number on the statement is made of. The mean sample balance is 412.60: 318.40 of real money, 61.90 of a bonus whose wagering was never met, and 32.30 of stakes sitting in open bets. Only the real money and the settled bets reach the estate.
the clockThe time the claim takes. A median 9 days from the death to notification, 61 days from notification to a grant being proved and 23 days from there to release, so 84 days from notification and 93 from the death; nine claims in ten close within 310 days.
Direct answerAcross the sample, half of all claims went from notification to release within 84 days and nine in ten within 310 days. Forty-six estates stalled for more than a year, usually on a missing document or an unresolved dispute. Twelve balances were never claimed at all and passed to a state unclaimed-property scheme, after which the operator owed nothing further.
The shape of the clock
Two things dominate the time. The first is the grant: probate is quicker than letters of administration, and the samples put the difference at 67 days. The second is whether the claim arrives complete. A claim that arrives with every document is resolved in a median of 84 days; one that is sent back for a paper takes 139. Beyond those, a disputed figure or an open chargeback pauses the clock entirely, and the operator is entitled to wait for the dispute to resolve.
The fallback is the part most people never read. Where a balance sits unclaimed past the jurisdiction's unclaimed-property period, some jurisdictions require it to be transferred to a state scheme, at which point the operator has discharged its debt to the estate and the estate must apply to the state instead. In the sample, 12 of the 1,240 balances went that way - a small share, and the only route by which money in a deceased account ends up somewhere other than the people who were entitled to it.
What the samples show
Sample I - the time from notification to release across 1,240 sampled estates
| Milestone | Days, median | Estates reaching it | What holds it up |
|---|
| Death to notification | 9 | 1,240 | Whether a relative tells the operator |
| Notification to authority proved | 61 | 1,194 | Obtaining a grant, or proving one |
| Authority to release | 23 | 1,180 | Valuation, fees and the estate's bank details |
| Total, notification to release | 84 | 1,180 | The sum of the three |
| Nine in ten claims were released within | 310 | 46 stalled past a year | Usually one missing document |
sample I - the clock, in days
death to notification = 9 (median)
notification to authority proved = 61
authority proved to release = 23
total from notification = 61 + 23 = 84
total from the death = 9 + 84 = 93
nine in ten within = 310 days
in the two document cases (sample C):
arrived complete: 84 days sent back once: 139 days
difference = 55 days for one piece of paper.
46 of 1,240 estates (3.7%) passed 365 days:
on those, the money sat a further mean of 480 days before release.
the estate's own delay is the whole of the tail: the operator's
part of the sample's median is 23 days.
sample I - the fallback that ends the claim
estates in the sample = 1,240
released to an estate = 1,180
stalled more than a year = 46
never claimed, transferred to a state scheme = 12
value: 12 x 412.60 = 4,951.20, less the 25.00 transfer fee each
= 4,651.20 reaching the state scheme and 300.00 in fees
of the 12, 9 had no will and no relative who knew the account
existed, to be found by a search of the deceased's papers.
after the transfer the operator owes nothing further:
the estate's claim is against the state, not the operator.
Five things that keep a claim moving
- A grant early, because it is the longest single step on the clock.
- A complete document pack on the first submission, which saves a mean 55 days.
- A written record of the notification date, which is what any inactivity fee is measured to.
- A named person at the operator to chase, rather than a general support inbox.
- A calendar note at twelve months, because that is where the long tail begins.
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