The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is launching an examination this month into whether investment firms are properly supporting customers who have lost loved ones.
According to FCA research, just 47 per cent of bereaved individuals felt they received adequate assistance from financial providers.
The regulator's assessment will scrutinise platforms, advisers and wealth managers, examining the entire customer journey from initial notification of a death through to final settlement or transfer of assets.
Kate Tuckley, head of department for consumer investments at the FCA, said: "When someone loses a loved one, the last thing they need is confusing letters, delays and poor service from their financial provider."
The FCA has launched a new probe
|GETTY
Madeleine Beresford, a partner in the private client team at TWM Solicitors, said the process of obtaining information from financial institutions can be "painfully slow".
She explained that families require accurate asset valuations to file inheritance tax returns and secure probate.
Ms Beresford shared: "Too often, they are left waiting weeks or even months for financial institutions to provide these figures.
"This means families may be unable to accurately complete their inheritance tax (IHT) returns and pay the tax due within the deadline of six months from death, meaning they can face interest charges for the late payment, even when that's no fault of theirs."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
The timeline shows the UK Business investment since 2016 | FACTS4EUMs Beresford described the experience as "incredibly difficult and dispiriting" for non-professionals unfamiliar with the procedures.
She added: "You would have assumed that technology that the banks now have at their fingertips would have allowed us to speed up the process but unfortunately that is rarely the case."
The lawyer cited that obtaining straightforward paperwork can require months of persistent follow-up: "That's clearly very distressing for the families concerned and can be costly too."
An increasingly common challenge involves tracking down cryptocurrency holdings belonging to the deceased.
Retail investors are looking for more protections from firms and Governments
| GETTYMr Beresford said: "Whilst UK-based institutions do cooperate, getting information from offshore crypto institutions can be far harder."
The FCA's review follows similar examinations of retail banking and insurance sectors, which revealed inconsistent practices and repeated requests for information from bereaved customers.
This latest review forms part of the financial services regulator's broader consumer duty work and sits within its consumer investments regulatory priorities.