What happens to Premium Bonds and NS&I when someone dies in the UK

Can Premium Bonds be inherited?

No. Premium Bonds cannot be inherited in place or transferred into a beneficiary's name. NS&I does not allow Premium Bonds to be transferred to anyone else during the holder's lifetime or after death. The bonds always have to be cashed in, with the proceeds paid into the deceased's estate.

This is the point most families are surprised by. If a beneficiary wants to hold Premium Bonds, they must buy their own, in their own name, with their own money, including any inheritance they receive from the estate.

NS&I also sits outside the Tell Us Once service. No government notification reaches NS&I when a death is registered, so the executor has to contact NS&I directly.

How long do Premium Bonds stay in the draw after death?

Premium Bonds stay in the monthly prize draw for up to 12 months from the date of death, then must be cashed in. The executor can cash them in earlier at any point.

Once NS&I is told the holder has died, the account is frozen. No new bonds can be bought, and any automatic reinvestment of prizes stops. Prizes won before the date of death form part of the estate and are counted in the probate valuation. Prizes won after the date of death are treated as income to the estate rather than part of the date-of-death holding.

Do you need probate to claim Premium Bonds?

Probate is needed if the deceased held £5,000 or more across all NS&I products combined. NS&I applies the £5,000 threshold to the total of Premium Bonds plus any other NS&I products, such as Income Bonds, Direct Saver or Direct ISA. At or above £5,000, NS&I requires a grant of probate or letters of administration before releasing the money.

Below £5,000, NS&I can release funds on the basis of the death certificate and the completed claim form alone. A small estate declaration may be required. NS&I reserves the right to ask for a grant at any holding level, though in practice this is rare below the threshold.

Confirm the full NS&I position before cashing anything in. If other NS&I products push the total over £5,000, probate is needed, and the claim is simpler handled as a single process. For the wider context, see what is probate. High street banks apply their own release thresholds in the same way, which is covered in what happens to a bank account when someone dies.

How to claim Premium Bonds after death

You claim Premium Bonds after a death by completing the NS&I bereavement claim, online or by post. This is the same NS&I bereavement process that covers every NS&I product, so one claim deals with Premium Bonds alongside any savings or investments the person held.

The online form at nsandi.com is the faster route. The executor completes it with the deceased's details, the NS&I holder's number if known, and the executor's own details, and uploads a copy of the death certificate. NS&I confirms whether a grant of representation is needed and, if so, requests a certified copy once it is available.

The postal route involves printing and completing the NS&I claim form, enclosing the death certificate and the will if applicable, and posting the pack to NS&I. Acknowledgement alone usually takes two to four weeks by post.

NS&I aims to complete most claims within 14 days of receiving all the documentation it needs. As of August 2026, NS&I's own service update reports a current response time of around eight weeks for bereavement enquiries. This is longer than the 14-day target because NS&I introduced a more thorough claims process after finding errors in some past bereavement cases. Complex cases, such as a missing holder's number, disputed executorship or bonds held for a child, take longer still. Once a claim to cash in is complete, the money is usually paid to the estate within two to three weeks.

What happens to prizes after the death of a Premium Bond holder?

Prizes won after the death of a Premium Bond holder are paid to the estate, normally to the executor, by warrant, which is similar to a cheque. Prizes cannot be paid by bank transfer during the 12 months after death, and they cannot be held back and paid out together at the end. Each warrant is issued separately, month by month, which catches some families out when three or four envelopes arrive over the year.

Premium Bond prizes do not expire. NS&I currently holds over £100 million in unclaimed Premium Bond prizes, spread across roughly 2.6 million individual wins. The public prize checker at nsandi.com covers the last 18 months, and older prizes are listed in the London Gazette Premium Bonds Unclaimed Prizes Supplement, published quarterly. Old bond numbers that were never checked may have prizes waiting from ten or twenty years ago.

Should the executor cash in the bonds or leave them in the draw?

The executor chooses between cashing in immediately and leaving the bonds in the draw for up to 12 months. The trade-off is speed against expected return.

Cash in immediately. Complete the bereavement claim and request encashment. The money is usually paid to the estate within two to three weeks once NS&I has what it needs. The bonds are only entered into the draw for the month they are cashed in, so additional prizes are unlikely.

Keep them in the draw. The bonds stay in the monthly draw for up to 12 months from the date of death, and any prizes are paid to the estate. At the end of the 12 months, or sooner if the executor chooses, the bonds are cashed in and the principal paid over.

For a modest holding of £1,000 or below, the expected value of a year in the draw is close to nothing. For the maximum £50,000 holding, it could be a few hundred pounds on average, though still uncertain. Most executors of modest estates cash in straight away to simplify the administration.

How to trace lost Premium Bonds

NS&I runs a free tracing service for lost or forgotten Premium Bonds. The executor submits the deceased's full name, date of birth, last known address and any previous addresses; a National Insurance number and any known holder's numbers help. NS&I searches its records and writes back with whatever it finds.

A trace request can be made on its own, before any other claim, and does not commit the estate to anything. It can also be run through the broader My Lost Account service, which covers NS&I alongside banks and building societies.

Given that more than one in three UK adults holds Premium Bonds, the default assumption when administering any estate should be that some may exist. Bonds bought decades ago, gifted by a parent or grandparent, or held only on paper certificates are easily missed. Check the unclaimed prize position as part of the same trace. Bonds that only turn up after the estate has been distributed are handled like any other accounts found after probate.

What happens to Premium Bonds held for a child?

If the deceased was the registered nominated parent or guardian of Premium Bonds held for a child under 16, the bonds are the child's property, not part of the deceased's estate. A new nominated parent or guardian must be set up with NS&I, usually the other parent or, failing that, a legal guardian. The bonds continue in the draw in the child's name.

This is worth checking during the trace, because a grandparent buying bonds for a grandchild is a common pattern. If the grandparent was the nominated guardian, the bonds can become stuck until a new guardian is registered. If the child is 16 or over and managing their own bonds, no change is needed.