What to do if you find accounts after probate has been granted

If you find a bank account or other asset after probate has been granted, you almost never need a new grant to deal with it. The grant of probate already covers the whole estate, not only the assets you listed when you applied, so you can use the grant you hold to collect the newly found account. The extra work sits in two places: telling HMRC through a corrective account if the value changes the inheritance tax position, and, where the estate has already been shared out, bringing the money back in before it can be distributed properly.

This situation is more common than people think. Estates get valued from the paperwork that turns up in the weeks after a death, and a forgotten savings account, a small pension, a shareholding, or an old insurance policy can surface months later. Discovering one doesn't mean the earlier administration was wrong. It just means there's a defined process to fold the new asset into the estate cleanly.

The grant already covers the whole estate

A grant of probate authorises the executor to administer the deceased's entire estate. It isn't limited to the specific accounts named in the application, so a newly discovered asset falls within its scope automatically. In practice, this means you can take the grant, or an official copy of it, to the bank or provider holding the money and ask them to release it in the same way you would have done during the main administration. Our guide on the grant of probate, what it is and how to apply explains the document and how institutions treat it.

Occasionally a provider will be awkward and ask for a fresh grant, but the legal position is that the existing one suffices for the whole estate. If you meet resistance, point the institution to the fact that the grant covers all assets, and ask them to escalate to their bereavement team. Keep the correspondence, because a clear paper trail helps if the value of the asset later affects the tax calculation.

When you have to tell HMRC

The tax question is the one to get right, because it's where liability sits. If the estate paid inheritance tax, or sat close to the threshold, a newly found asset can change the figures. You report the change to HMRC using a corrective account, form C4. HMRC's position is that a C4 should be completed wherever there's an amendment to the account already submitted, and the current form and guidance are on the GOV.UK Inheritance Tax corrective account pages.

Whether extra tax actually falls due depends on where the estate sat. The nil-rate band lets an estate pass on a set amount before inheritance tax applies, with a further allowance where a home passes to direct descendants. If the estate was comfortably below those thresholds and the new asset doesn't push it over, there may be no additional tax, though you should still report the change. If the estate had already used its allowances, the new asset is likely to be taxable, and our guide on the inheritance tax threshold for 2026 sets out the current bands.

Interest is the sting in the tail. Inheritance tax is due six months after the end of the month in which the person died, and interest runs from that date on any tax paid late, at the rate published on the GOV.UK pay Inheritance Tax pages. Because a corrective account usually comes months or years after death, additional tax on a found asset often carries interest by the time it's paid. That isn't a penalty, and reporting promptly once you find the asset is what keeps you on the right side of HMRC. If the delay was genuinely down to the asset being hidden or untraceable, say so when you file, because it's relevant to how HMRC treats the account.

A short example shows how the numbers move. Say an estate was valued at £600,000 and used a £325,000 nil-rate band plus a £175,000 residence nil-rate band, leaving £100,000 taxed at 40 per cent, so £40,000 of inheritance tax was paid. A £30,000 savings account then surfaces a year later. The taxable estate rises to £130,000, the tax to £52,000, and the extra £12,000 falls due, with interest calculated from the original due date six months after the month of death. You'd report the £30,000 on a corrective account, pay the additional tax and interest, and only then distribute what remains of the found money to the beneficiaries. The mechanics are the same whether the extra asset is a savings account, a shareholding, or a matured policy.

If the estate has already been distributed

The most awkward version of this is finding an account after everything has been shared out and the estate closed. The asset still belongs to the estate, so it needs to be collected, any tax on it settled, and the remainder distributed to the beneficiaries in the correct proportions. Where the estate has been fully paid out, that can mean topping up the tax from the new asset first, then distributing what's left, or, if the new asset is large, revisiting the earlier distribution.

Executors carry personal responsibility here, so it's worth being careful. If you distribute the found asset incorrectly, or pay it out before settling the tax on it, HMRC can pursue you rather than the beneficiaries. Our guide on what an executor of a will does, including duties and liability explains where that personal exposure begins and how to limit it. Where the sums are significant or the beneficiaries are hard to reach, taking advice from a probate solicitor or a member of STEP is money well spent, and the STEP directory lets you find a qualified practitioner.

How accounts get missed in the first place

Understanding why assets slip through helps you find the rest of them, because a person who had one forgotten account often had others. Dormant bank and building society accounts are the classic case, left untouched for years and invisible on recent statements. Premium Bonds and other NS&I products don't send regular post, so they vanish from view. Small or old workplace pensions get left behind when someone changes jobs. Shareholdings from privatisations or demutualisations in the 1980s and 1990s sit in registrars' records that families never see. And life insurance or endowment policies quietly continue without any recent paperwork.

Free tracing routes exist for most of these. The industry-backed My Lost Account service searches banks, building societies, and NS&I for dormant accounts, and our My Lost Account guide explains what it covers and, just as usefully, what it misses. The government's Pension Tracing Service finds lost workplace and personal pensions through the official find pension contact details tool, and our guide on the Pension Tracing Service and what to do next walks through it. The Unclaimed Assets Register and the dormant assets scheme cover investments and insurance policies that the other services don't reach.

If you're valuing an estate now and want to avoid this problem entirely, our guide on how to value an estate for probate lists where to search before you apply, which is far less work than reopening an estate later.

How this works in Scotland

Scotland uses different terms and a slightly different process, so the steps aren't identical. Probate in Scotland is called confirmation, granted by the sheriff court on the strength of an inventory of the estate. When an asset turns up after confirmation, the executor adds it through what's known as an eik to the inventory, an addition that brings the new item within the existing confirmation rather than requiring a fresh application. For the tax side, HMRC uses a Scottish version of the corrective form, the corrective inventory and account, form C4(S), which mirrors the C4 used in the rest of the UK. The principle stays the same across all four nations. The estate is a single whole, a found asset belongs to it, and there's a defined route to report the change and settle any tax before the money reaches the beneficiaries. If the estate was administered in Scotland, take advice from a Scottish solicitor, because the court procedure for an eik has its own requirements.

Protecting yourself as executor

There's a formal step that guards against a different but related risk: unknown creditors coming forward after you've distributed the estate. Placing a deceased estates notice, known as a section 27 notice, in The Gazette and a local newspaper gives creditors a window to make a claim. Once the notice period passes, you're protected against claims from creditors you didn't know about, so you can distribute the estate with more confidence. The notice doesn't help you find missing assets, but it does mean that when you do distribute, an unexpected debt can't later be laid at your door personally.

That protection pairs naturally with a thorough asset search. A section 27 notice shields you on the debts side, and a proper trace of accounts and pensions shields the beneficiaries on the assets side, so between them the estate is both complete and defensible.

If what you find is a debt, not an asset

The same discovery can cut the other way. Sometimes what surfaces after probate is a debt rather than an account in credit, such as an unpaid loan, a tax bill, or a care charge nobody knew about. The estate is liable for it, and if there's still money in the estate, you pay it from there before distributing the rest. The problem comes when the estate has already been shared out. Here the section 27 notice earns its place, because an executor who placed one is protected from personal liability for debts they couldn't have known about once the notice period has closed. Without that protection, a creditor can pursue the executor personally, or pursue the beneficiaries for money they've received. If the newly found debts are large enough that the estate can't cover them, the estate may be insolvent, which changes the order debts get paid in, and that's the point to take professional advice rather than pay anyone out of turn.

Getting help with the search

Tracking down scattered accounts is slow, repetitive work, and it's the part of estate administration where things get missed under the weight of everything else that follows a death. This is where Legacy Trail is useful: it identifies the accounts and providers a person held and coordinates the notifications, which reduces the chance of an account surfacing months down the line and forcing you back into a corrective account and a fresh round of tax. Alongside the wider job of closing accounts, covered in our guide on cancelling a deceased person's subscriptions and digital accounts, a systematic search early on saves the more painful cleanup later.

Finding an account after probate isn't a crisis. You hold a grant that already covers it, HMRC has a defined form for reporting the change, and the tracing services can help you check whether there's more to find. Deal with the tax first, distribute second, and document each step, and a late discovery becomes a manageable piece of admin rather than a reason to worry.