Generic UK estate advice will cost your family money in Northern Ireland — because almost none of it applies here.

Someone has died, and you've been left to sort the estate. You search for help and find a wall of guidance written for England and Wales. It tells you to use "Tell Us Once" to notify every government department in a single call — but that service does not exist in Northern Ireland. It quotes the English statutory legacy of £322,000 — but the figure here is £250,000 if there are children, or £450,000 if there aren't. It explains how to fill out PA1P and IHT205 — forms that mean nothing to the Probate Office in Belfast.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The probate court fee is about to rise from £300 to £526 in July 2026. Every bank has a different threshold for releasing funds without a Grant of Probate — AIB at £25,000, Danske Bank at £50,000, Bank of Ireland UK at £50,000 — and nobody has put them in one place. The NI Bereavement Service will record the death and check your benefit eligibility, but it will not contact a single bank, utility, or council on your behalf. You are on your own, grieving, with a stack of forms you've never seen before.

The Northern Ireland Estate Command Centre

This guide replaces the 30 open browser tabs with a single, chronological system. The Northern Ireland Estate Command Centre takes every form, threshold, deadline, and agency that matters — exclusively under Northern Ireland law — and sequences them in the exact order you need to act. It is the project plan a meticulous solicitor's clerk would build, but you keep the estate's money instead of paying them to build it.

At its core is the NI Bank Threshold Matrix: a single reference table showing every major Northern Ireland bank's probate limit, so you know immediately which accounts you can access without a court application and which ones trigger the full probate process. No more phoning branch after branch to find out.

Every figure is current for 2026: the £526 probate fee, the £250,000 and £450,000 intestacy thresholds under the Administration of Estates Act (NI) 1955, the Bereavement Support Payment rates and the 3-month claim window, and bank thresholds verified against each institution's own bereavement policy.

What's inside

• Phase 1 — Days 1–5: Immediate Actions. Registering the death at GRONI, the limits of the NI Bereavement Service (it only notifies social security — you notify everyone else), securing the property, and claiming the Bereavement Support Payment before the 3-month deadline costs you months of payments.
• Phase 2 — Days 6–30: Stopping the Financial Bleed. The Northern Ireland Bank Threshold Matrix, how to use the Small Estates Indemnity form to release funds below threshold, which frozen accounts to tackle first, and how to get funeral costs paid directly from the estate before probate.
• Phase 3 — Days 30–90: The Probate Sprint. Line-by-line guidance for NIPF1 (with a will) or NIPF2 (without a will) alongside the NIPF7 Estate Summary. Where to swear the oath, how to submit to the Probate Office at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast or the Londonderry district registry, and beating the £526 fee deadline.
• Phase 4 — Intestacy Under the 1955 Act. Visual flowcharts for every family structure. The £250,000 statutory legacy for a spouse with children. The £450,000 legacy with no children. Why unmarried partners and stepchildren have zero automatic rights. How to avoid the catastrophic mistake of applying the English £322,000 figure.
• Phase 5 — Cross-Border Complications. Why a Republic of Ireland Grant of Probate cannot be resealed in Northern Ireland under the Colonial Probates Act 1892. How to sequence dual applications. Managing UK Inheritance Tax alongside Republic of Ireland Capital Acquisitions Tax. When you genuinely need solicitors in both jurisdictions.
• Phase 6 — Distribution and Closure. Tax clearances from HMRC, property transfers through the NI Land Registry, final beneficiary reporting, and closing the estate with a proper accounting.

Plus 7 printable standalone worksheets

• Northern Ireland Bank Threshold Quick-Reference Card
• Master Notification Matrix — every agency, utility, and financial institution, with phone numbers and what to say
• NIPF Form Completion Walkthrough — line-by-line guidance for NIPF1, NIPF2, and NIPF7
• Estate Inventory and Valuation Tracker — catalogue every asset and liability for the NIPF7 Estate Summary
• Beneficiary Distribution Calculator — NI intestacy rules with fillable distribution worksheet
• 90-Day Settlement Timeline — every statutory deadline on one page, with a fillable date column
• First 48 Hours Checklist — the immediate actions in the right order (also included free)

Who this is for

• Named executors who have read the will and are staring at a box of financial paperwork across multiple banks — the guide gives you a daily action plan from day one through final distribution, and the cost is a legitimate estate expense.
• Next of kin without a will who must apply to the High Court for Letters of Administration — the guide walks you through the 1955 Act's intestacy rules so you distribute correctly and avoid personal liability.
• Surviving spouses locked out of frozen accounts, unsure whether you need a Grant of Probate or just a bank indemnity form — the threshold matrix tells you in under a minute.
• Families with cross-border assets in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland — the guide explains which jurisdiction to file in first, the dual tax exposure, and when dual legal representation becomes unavoidable.
• Pre-planners organising a parent's affairs while they are still alive — the estate inventory framework helps you collect every account number, policy, and deed before urgency hits.

Why not just use the government pages?

The free nidirect pages are accurate, but they are an encyclopaedia, not an instruction manual. They tell you that you need to register the death, apply for probate, and pay debts — but not how to orchestrate these tasks simultaneously without making a sequential error that delays the grant, triggers the higher court fee, or lands you with personal liability for misallocating estate funds.

The NI Courts and Tribunals Service hosts the forms but explicitly suggests hiring a solicitor to complete them. The law firms describe the dangers beautifully — then quote you £2,000–£3,000 to handle them. Age NI publishes a general guide, but it occasionally blurs the line between Northern Irish and English law. And the UK-wide charity pages actively promote Tell Us Once — a service that will leave you stranded in Belfast.

This guide sits in the gap: the empathy of a charity with the document-by-document precision of a paralegal, for the price of .

A simple guarantee

If the guide doesn't make your next steps clearer and your deadlines easier to track, reply to your receipt within 30 days and we'll refund you in full. There's nothing to return, and you keep the free checklist. You're already carrying enough — the financial risk shouldn't be yours too.

Get the NI Estate Settlement Guide —

One clear roadmap through the Northern Ireland system, for less than a single hour of a solicitor's time. So you can settle the estate with confidence, meet every deadline, and keep the money where it belongs — with the family.