Farra is a death administration assistant for UK families. Get step-by-step guidance for registering a death, applying for probate, notifying banks, and managing bereavement admin. From essential documents to practical checklists, Farra simplifies estate paperwork and funeral-related tasks so you can focus on what matters.
M&G publishes a figure, and it is worth quoting exactly: “If the investments of your loved one are £36,000 or less, and you're not applying for probate, you can complete a Small Estates Form instead.” Two things follow from that wording. The £36,000 counts what is held with M&G, not the whole estate. And it is a ceiling on the no-grant route rather than a trigger — if a grant is being obtained for the rest of the estate, M&G wants it whatever the balance. The bereavement team is on 0800 390 390, 08:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 09:00 to 13:00 on Saturday.
M&G Investments is a UK and European asset manager offering unit trusts, OEICs, investment bonds and ISAs to UK investors. Prudential and M&G are now the same group — pru.co.uk bereavement addresses redirect to mandg.com — but Prudential-branded pensions and bonds are handled by a different team and a different page from M&G Investments funds.
Its published position on a grant:
M&G defines Grant of Representation as covering a Grant of Probate, Letters of Administration, a Confirmation for Scottish residents, or equivalent documents issued in other countries which have been resealed in England. So if the person who died lived in Scotland, the document M&G wants is the confirmation from the sheriff court, not a grant of probate.
For a full comparison of thresholds across UK institutions, see our probate threshold guide for 2026–27.
For a sole account, M&G sends a valuation of the account as at the date of death, which is what you need for the inheritance tax return and the grant application, together with the distribution due at the date of death but not yet paid.
Our estate administration checklist helps you manage document submissions across all institutions.
Contacting M&G is one of the key steps in notifying financial institutions after a death.
M&G does not currently participate in the Death Notification Service (DNS). You must contact M&G directly. The DNS primarily covers high-street banks; investment managers and fund houses such as M&G have their own separate bereavement processes.
No, and M&G says so directly: it is “not able to send proceeds from the investments of your loved one directly to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) or to anyone dealing with the estate before we've received the Grant of Representation”. Since inheritance tax has to be paid before the grant is issued, an M&G holding cannot be the source of that payment. The money has to come from somewhere that does operate the Direct Payment Scheme. Our guide on probate delays and IHT interest covers strategies for managing this.
M&G publishes two figures, and neither is the “4 to 6 weeks” that used to sit here. It says it will send confirmation of a sale by close of business on the following working day, and that once anti-money-laundering checks are complete it sends the proceeds within three working days.
On the grant itself, M&G says it usually takes around two months to obtain a Grant of Representation, and can take longer for complex cases. That is the wait that dominates the timeline, and it is nothing to do with M&G. See the complete UK probate guide for 2026 for a full timeline.
M&G and Prudential are one group, but they are not one bereavement process. M&G Investments — unit trusts, OEICs, ISAs — is the business this page covers, with the £36,000 Small Estates Form route above. Prudential pensions, with-profits bonds and annuities are handled separately, on their own pages, and the group does not publish a threshold for those at all.
The account paperwork is the quickest way to tell which you are dealing with: an M&G client reference points here, a Prudential policy number points there. If the person held a Prudential pension or bond, see our Prudential probate threshold guide. For what each route to administering an estate involves, see our DIY probate versus solicitor cost guide.
Before you assume you need probate
Do you actually need a grant — and what would it cost?
A M&G Investments balance is only part of the picture. Whether the estate needs probate at all depends on the whole picture — property, other accounts, and how everything was owned — not a single threshold. It is worth checking before you start filling in forms.
Guide reviewed July 2026. Bank thresholds change and can vary by account type — always confirm the current figure with the provider before relying on it.
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