General information, not legal or financial advice. Each bank sets out its own steps, and estate law differs by state. Your state’s public trustee or legal aid service can explain the estate side; Moneysmart’s guide to losing a partner covers the money side.
Moneysmart makes the same point: depending on the circumstances, a bank may let money from the account go towards the funeral, sometimes before probate. The Code only binds banks that have signed up to it. Its deceased estates rules are Part B8 of the 2025 Code, paragraphs 132 to 145; this page summarises them in plain words, grouped by the questions a family tends to have, with the paragraph numbers so you can read the Code itself.
Can the bank pay the funeral before probate?
Yes. Until a needed grant arrives, the person the bank accepts as the estate’s representative can ask the bank for only a few things: information about the account and its fees, a payment towards money the person owed that bank, and money for expenses the Code allows, which names funeral costs and the court filing fee for the grant itself. For that last one the bank needs to see the invoice or receipt (paragraph 139).
The bank will also say whether it needs a grant at all. If it doesn’t, it explains how to close things off (paragraph 140); if it does need one for something, such as handing assets to beneficiaries, it tells you that too (paragraph 142).
How do I get the bank to deal with me?
Tell the bank about the death
The Code asks for this as soon as practicable. The bank may want a verified copy of the death certificate, and if that is slow to come, it will talk with you about other papers it could take, a verified medical report being one example (paragraph 134).
Show that you speak for the estate
Bring your own identification. An executor named in the will brings a verified copy of the will; where there is no will, next of kin bring a verified death certificate that names them, or another document recognising them as next of kin. The bank can ask for more, and if you can’t produce these, the Code asks you to raise it with the bank.
Expect an answer within 14 business days
Once the verified documents are in, the bank acts on a valid instruction within 14 business days. If the will names more than one executor, it may need each of them to give the instruction.
What happens to the account in the meantime?
Accounts in the person’s name alone are locked down promptly: online and app logins are removed and fewer kinds of payments can go out (paragraph 135). Fees for services the bank can no longer provide stop, and any charged since the death are refunded, though ongoing fees such as account keeping can continue (paragraph 136). The estate may be able to open an account in its own name if the bank offers one (paragraph 141), and anyone who held a joint account with the person can keep using it under the account’s terms (paragraph 145). Under paragraph 132 the bank also commits to treating you with respect and compassion and to publishing how all of this works.
What each state’s own pages add
- New South Wales
Legal Aid NSW says a bank may let some of the money go to the funeral once you have contacted it and shown identification and your relationship to the person; it may also ask for its own forms, the death certificate, the will or the funeral director’s invoice first.
- South Australia
The Law Handbook notes that a bank may want probate before an executor closes the account, and that what banks ask for differs between them and with the size of the estate. Since 1 January 2025, section 100 of the Succession Act 2023 (SA) has allowed whoever holds $15,000 or less belonging to the person to hand it to a surviving spouse, domestic partner or child without a grant. For a sole-name account, a bank may release money for the funeral or pay the funeral director directly against a tax invoice.
- Western Australia
The WA Government’s Public Trustee page describes an estate whose only asset is a small bank account: after the right forms and documents, the bank may pay part of the funeral from it and hand the rest to the beneficiaries.
- Northern Territory
The NT Government’s worked case of a small estate under $20,000 has the husband’s bank money used for his funeral.
Joint accounts work differently: in South Australia’s handbook, the money passes automatically to the surviving account holder.
What to bring
Putting the Code and Legal Aid NSW together, a bank may ask for:
- your own proof of identification;
- a verified copy of the death certificate;
- a verified copy of the will, if you are an executor named in it;
- the funeral director’s invoice, or the receipt if you have already paid;
- any forms the bank has for estates.