Bringing an inheritance from abroad into the UK

The four documents the UK bank can ask for

When a five- or six-figure sterling amount arrives in your UK account from abroad, the bank can ask where the money came from. These checks are a legal duty on the bank (the Money Laundering Regulations 2017), not a suspicion of you. Sometimes it asks before it lets the money through. Sometimes it lets the money in and asks later, when you try to move it on. Either way, what the bank is looking for is a chain of paper: the deceased owned this money, the estate released it, and it reached you.

The first document is the grant of probate, or whatever the country of the estate calls its equivalent. Ask the executor for a sealed original, or a certified copy. If it is not in English, you will need a certified English translation. Ask the bank what it accepts.

The second is a copy of the will, if there was one, certified and translated where needed. If the deceased died without a will, the local court order confirming the heirs stands in its place.

The third is a letter from the executor that names you as the beneficiary and states your share. Ask for it on the estate solicitor's letterhead, or on the executor's own paper if the executor is a family member. It should say who the executor is, what your share is, and confirm that the executor has the authority to release the money to you. Ask for it before the money is on the way.

The fourth is a statement from the estate bank account, showing the payment out to you on the day. It can only exist once the money has left, so ask for it then. It closes the chain: "the deceased owned it", "the executor released it", "you received it".

Bring the death certificate too, especially if the executor is not you.

In one MoneySavingExpert thread from October 2023, a Halifax customer said a six-figure inheritance arrived with no questions, and Santander told another customer it would need to know the source if the money moved. One thread is not a rule. Have the pack ready for both moments: the arrival, and the move into a savings account, a broker or a property purchase. A UK solicitor on the UK side may want the same paperwork for their own anti-money-laundering check.

The UK tax question, plainly

The tax lines on this page are for someone who lives in the UK. If you live abroad and only keep a UK account, they may not fit you, so ask a tax adviser where you live.

Receipt of an inheritance is not income for you, and it is not a chargeable gain. You do not usually owe tax at the moment you inherit, so you do not usually pay UK income tax or UK capital gains tax when the money arrives in your account.

UK Inheritance Tax is charged on the deceased's estate. The executor usually pays it before you get the money, but HMRC will contact you if you have to pay any yourself. UK assets, such as property or bank accounts in the UK, can be taxed wherever the deceased lived. For assets outside the UK, the test is residence. The rule changed on 6 April 2025: the old "domicile" test was replaced by a long-term UK residence test under the Finance Act 2025. The deceased's worldwide estate falls inside UK IHT only if the deceased was UK-resident for at least ten of the previous twenty tax years.

For the case this guide is about, the estate is outside UK Inheritance Tax entirely. There is no UK inheritance-tax filing to do (no IHT return, no IHT400). Check that this is your case: the deceased lived and died abroad, was not a long-term UK resident, and held no UK bank account, no UK shares and no UK property. Any tax on the estate is then a matter for the home country, so ask the executor what is due before the money reaches you.

Two things to watch after the money arrives. Any interest the money earns in a UK savings account is your income; any dividend on shares you now hold is taxable in the ordinary way. If you later sell an inherited asset (a foreign flat, a portfolio of foreign shares), UK capital gains tax runs from the market value at the date of death, converted to sterling at the exchange rate on the date of death, up to the sterling proceeds at the exchange rate on the date of sale. Keep the probate valuation, the death-certificate date and a note of the exchange rate on that date. You will want them years later.

If you are recent to the UK, spend ten minutes with a tax adviser before you move a large inheritance into a UK savings account. The four-year Foreign Income and Gains regime, introduced in April 2025, may shelter foreign income and gains you make after the inheritance from UK tax. It applies while you are inside the four-year window. Recent means you were not UK-resident for at least ten consecutive tax years before your first year here.

The currency-timing question

Probate can take months, and the exchange rate moves while you wait. Since January 2021, the pound has typically moved about 2 percent against the euro over twelve months, and about 4.5 percent against the dollar. It moved 5 percent or more in about 10 of every 100 twelve-month periods against the euro, and in about 45 of every 100 against the dollar (European Central Bank rates). On a £100,000 conversion, 5 percent is £5,000, in either direction.

The simplest choice is to take the rate on the payout day. Whatever the rate is when the money leaves the estate is the rate you get. That is the least admin, and it puts all the currency risk on your side.

If your executor gives you a firm payout date some months out, you may be able to fix the rate today. A forward contract lets you agree an exchange rate now for a settlement date later, through an FCA-authorised currency broker. Each broker sets how far ahead it will go, so ask.

Check your currency first. Fixed rates are mainly offered in major currencies. OFX's list, from an FCA-authorised broker, has 15 currencies. It has the euro and the US dollar, but no rupees, pesos, naira or yuan. We could not read Currencies Direct's full list. If your currency is not on OFX's list, ask a broker before you plan around a fixed rate. We read OFX's list on 5 November 2026.

You pay a deposit when you agree the contract, often around 10 percent. The inheritance has not arrived yet, so the deposit comes from your own money.

Watch the margin call: you are buying pounds, so if sterling falls sharply before the settlement date, your fixed rate is worse than the day's rate, and the broker can ask you to top up the deposit to keep the trade in place. Keep some spare sterling on hand, or fix a forward on part of the amount and take the day's rate on the rest.

A forward has a risk if the payout date moves. If the payout comes late or falls through, the forward does not end by itself. Currencies Direct's terms let you end a forward early by written notice, but you pay its costs and losses. If the pound has fallen since you fixed the rate, you owe the loss. What is left of your deposit comes back after that.

If you do not have the money on the settlement date, Currencies Direct can close the contract and charge you the same costs and losses. Other brokers may differ, so before you sign, ask what happens if the payout comes late. Do not fix the rate for a date you are not sure of.

You can also let the executor pre-convert on your behalf. The estate solicitor converts into sterling at the estate level and wires sterling to your UK account. Your rate is fixed at the moment of conversion, and no foreign currency has to be handled on the UK side.

The trap is that the estate's own bank or broker may not give you a competitive rate, and you may not see what rate you got. If the executor offers to do this for you, ask which rate applies, on what amount, on what day, and get it in writing before agreeing.

A personal Wise or Revolut account does not offer a forward contract. Their forward products are for business customers (Wise, Revolut). Wise can hold a "guaranteed rate" for two to forty-eight hours, depending on the currency. For a settlement date months out, ask a broker, and check first that it fixes rates in your currency.

When the money finally does move

For a five- or six-figure lump, get two prices on the same day: the Wise price and a broker's quote.

Wise uses the real rate and charges a fee you can see before you send. On 4 November 2026 the fee to change €100,000 into pounds was €401.71, and the fee on $100,000 was $261.43. A broker such as Currencies Direct gives you a quote instead of a public price, so you can only compare the two once you have the quote.

If you use a broker, find its FCA firm reference number on its site and check it on the FCA register at register.fca.org.uk. Currencies Direct says one of its account managers will call you after you sign up. Ask for the rate in writing before you agree to send.

If you need to fix the rate for a payout date, Currencies Direct is one broker to ask. The company was set up in 1995 (Companies House 03041197) and is FCA-authorised. Boki may be paid if you sign up through this link. Currencies Direct lets you fix the exchange rate in advance. Its terms say the deposit and any margin call on a forward are not safeguarded, so if the firm failed you might not get that money back. Get its quote, OFX's quote and the Wise price on the same day, and compare them.

Nigeria: one worked example

The paperwork looks different in every country, but the questions you take back to a family lawyer are the same. Nigeria is the one worth walking through in detail here, because it is the country this guide sits closest to.

Your Nigerian executor is dealing with a state High Court, not a federal one; probate in Nigeria is a state matter. The Lagos registry has an online portal at probate.lagosjudiciary.gov.ng. Ask your executor whether they have the sealed grant back yet. One Nigerian law firm, writing in 2022, put the wait in Lagos State at an average of 4 to 6 months once the forms are in.

When the money is ready to send, the bank works from the Central Bank of Nigeria's Foreign Exchange Manual (Fourth Edition, launched on 15 May 2026). The manual has no section on inheritance, so ask the executor to find out early what the bank will want. Form A is not mandatory for a payment from an ordinary domiciliary account (a foreign-currency account at a Nigerian bank). It is mandatory for foreign exchange bought in the official market.

Inheritance itself is not taxed under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025. The estate does pay a state probate fee, set as a share of the estate's value. Law firms quote 5 to 10 percent and differ on Lagos, so ask the executor for the registry's assessment. On the UK side, none of it changes anything for you.

If the deceased held UK assets

The four documents cover the case this guide is about: the estate is abroad, the money arrives as sterling in your UK account. If the deceased also held assets in the UK (a UK bank account still in their name, UK-registered shares, a UK flat), someone may need a UK grant of probate to release those. Inheritance Tax can be due on those assets even if the deceased lived abroad. Each bank or firm has its own rules.

That is a separate job from the money crossing, and a UK probate solicitor can handle it. In some countries the sealed foreign grant can be resealed at the UK Probate Registry under the Colonial Probates Act 1892, and no fresh UK grant is needed; in others a fresh one is. Your family lawyer will know which applies.

Traps worth naming

Do not let the UK bank auto-convert the wire on arrival. If the money arrives in a foreign currency and your UK bank does the conversion, the bank takes its own margin inside the rate. Lloyds' page on money coming in said on 4 November 2026 that it takes a margin of 2.40 to 2.10 percent on £50,000 to £100,000, 2.10 to 1.50 percent on £100,000 to £250,000, and 1.50 percent above that. It said these figures can change at any time.

Barclays said on 4 November 2026 that its charge is no greater than 2.75 percent for personal and Premier customers. Ask your own bank for its figure before the money arrives.

You can ask the executor to send the money to a multi-currency account you have opened, such as Wise, and convert on your side. Ask Wise or your broker first whether it will take a payment from the estate.

Do not accept a rate the executor gives you without asking what the rate is. A polite email ("what exchange rate will apply to the sterling amount you send me, and on what date will you set it?") is normal. If the answer is "the rate our bank gives us on the day", you may prefer to receive the money in the source currency and convert on your own side.

Do not throw the estate paperwork away after the money arrives. If you later sell an inherited asset, UK capital gains tax starts from its market value at the date of death. The probate valuation and the date-of-death exchange rate are your record of that value. Keep the folder.

And do not send anything to a wallet or account you have not verified by phone, on a number you looked up yourself. Watch for a spoofed email from "the executor" with revised wiring instructions the day before the wire. Verify verbally.

The order to do it in

• Ask the executor for the pack: the sealed grant, the will, the executor's letter naming you and stating your share, and the death certificate. Include a certified English translation for anything not in English. Once the money has left, ask for the estate bank statement showing the debit.
• Decide on the tool. Open an FCA-authorised currency broker account and get the quote in writing. Compare it with the Wise price on the same day. If you do not need a forward and Wise is cheaper, use Wise and skip the broker.
• Decide on the shape. The day's rate at payout; a forward locking the rate to a settlement date; or the executor pre-converting on your behalf. Ask which rate applies and on what amount before agreeing.
• Verify the wiring instructions on a phone call to a number you looked up separately.
• Receive. If your UK bank asks the source-of-funds question after the money arrives, reply the same day with the pack.
• Keep the folder. Probate valuation, date of death, the sterling equivalent on that date. You will want it if you later sell an inherited asset.

The rest of the pieces on money crossing from one banking system to another, from moving your savings to the UK to a large family gift that has been paused for a source-of-funds check, sit under between systems.

Corrections

• 2026-11-06: The page did not say that Boki may be paid if you sign up through its Currencies Direct link. It now says so.
• 2026-11-06: The page said Boki recommends Currencies Direct, but it gave no reason to prefer that firm to OFX. It now calls Currencies Direct one broker to ask, and says to get OFX's quote too.
• 2026-11-06: An earlier version said a broker can fix the rate for a settlement date months out, without saying that your currency may not be covered. The page now tells you to check first.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version gave the tax lines without saying they are for someone who lives in the UK. The page now says so, and tells a reader who lives abroad to ask a tax adviser there.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version said you can fix the rate today, without saying that your currency may not be covered. OFX's list has no rupees, pesos, naira or yuan, so the page now tells you to check.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version did not say what happens if the payout comes late or falls through. Under Currencies Direct's terms you pay its costs and losses to end a forward early, and the page now says so.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said Inheritance Tax falls on the estate, not on the beneficiary, and that it depends on where the deceased lived for tax. The executor usually pays, but HMRC can ask you to pay. UK assets can be taxed wherever the deceased lived, and the residence test is for assets outside the UK.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said the probate valuation is the base cost for UK capital gains tax. The starting point is the market value at the date of death, and the valuation is only a record of it.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said a broker holds an FCA authorisation to keep your money in a segregated client account. We could not source that for brokers in general, and Currencies Direct's terms say the deposit and any margin call on a forward are not safeguarded. The line is gone, and the page now says this.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said a call after you sign up is how brokers work. We can show the call only for Currencies Direct, so the page now says that.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said the Central Bank of Nigeria's manual was in force from 1 June 2026. We could not find that date at the bank, which says it launched the manual on 15 May 2026, so the page now gives that date.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said the broker can ask you to top up the deposit if sterling rises. You are buying pounds, so it is the other way round: the risk is sterling falling. The page now says so, and says the deposit comes from your own money.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said Wise, Revolut and UK banks do not offer forward contracts. Wise and Revolut sell them to business customers, and we could not source the line on banks.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said forwards run up to about two years, and that Currencies Direct offers that; that figure is on its business page, so the page now tells you to ask. The line that a forward rate sits a fraction below the day's rate could not be sourced, and it is gone.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said a transfer app is a poor fit at this size because its per-transfer caps trip, that most people use a broker, and to use Wise under about £20,000 and a broker above that. Wise's caps are far higher, and we found no published broker price that beats its fee, so the page now gives Wise's fees and tells you to compare quotes.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said a broker's rate is closer to the real rate than any UK bank's, that its margin is a fraction of one percent or about half of one percent, that a local bank's margin runs 3 to 5 percent, and that Currencies Direct has run these transfers for around 30 years at a fraction of a bank's margin. It also said the rate on a broker's phone call is the one that binds, that a dealing desk calls the day after you sign up, and that a broker should have 15 years of trading history. We could not source these, and they are gone.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said UK banks take two to four percent on a payment like this. We could not source that range, so the page now gives the dated figures Lloyds and Barclays publish for arriving payments.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version named a Starling foreign-currency account and a broker's client account as places for the executor to send the money; we could not confirm either, and the page now tells you to ask first.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said sterling can move five to ten percent in the wait without anything unusual happening. European Central Bank rates since January 2021 show less than that against the euro, and the page now gives dated figures. It also said six months is fast for probate abroad, twelve is normal, and the estate account earns nothing; we could not source these, and they are gone.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said that no tax on arrival is the plain rule, not a "usually". GOV.UK says "usually", and the page now does. It said an estate abroad with no UK assets is outside UK Inheritance Tax; that holds only if the deceased was not a long-term UK resident.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said the executor handles home-country estate tax and that interest goes on your Self Assessment; neither is always true, and both are gone.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said a "Form A stamp" is no longer needed on a self-funded domiciliary account, and gave a list of what the Nigerian dealer bank will ask for. The CBN manual says Form A is not mandatory for an ordinary domiciliary account but is for foreign exchange from the official market, and it has no section on inheritance.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said an executor's bank may route through non-resident Nigerian accounts. Those accounts are for a Nigerian living abroad, and the line is gone.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version said the Lagos probate fee is about 5 percent; law firms differ, so the page now gives 5 to 10 percent and says to ask for the assessment. It said a Lagos grant takes three to six months and a contested one a year or more; the page now gives one law firm's 4 to 6 months.
• 2026-11-04: The lines that Lagos is the busiest registry and that its portal cut the queueing could not be sourced, and they are gone.
• 2026-11-04: We also changed or cut lines we could not source: that the bank has to check and wants the pack before it releases the money (it can ask), that most UK banks let the money through (Barclays was not an inheritance case, so the page now gives one thread), which translators a bank accepts, what families forget, how a cash-only estate goes wrong, that a UK grant is always needed for UK assets, and that wire fraud is the dominant pattern.
• 2026-10-01: An earlier version of this page said Boki uses Currencies Direct for this shape of transaction. Boki has no personal usage relationship with the broker, and the wording implied one; the paragraph has been rewritten to say Boki recommends Currencies Direct, which is what was meant.