Certification of the shareholders in an estate inventory deed

You can apply to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency for a certification of the shareholders in an estate inventory deed for managing the matters of the estate. Applying for the certification is not obligatory, however. The certification concerns only the information recorded on the shareholders of the estate and the surviving spouse in the estate inventory deed and not the entire content of the deed.

You may need a certification of the shareholders in the estate inventory deed when the intention is to sell real property that is part of the estate. The shareholders of the estate can use the certified estate inventory deed prove that they have the right to represent the estate together in a sale of real estate. The buyer of the real estate, on the other hand, can trust that a sale concluded with the shareholders recorded in the certified estate inventory deed binds the estate even if it were later found out that a shareholder was missing from the deed.

You will receive a certification if the reports of family relationships and the other documents presented as appendices to the estate inventory deed make it possible to verify that the right persons have been recorded as shareholders of the estate in the estate inventory deed. If there are mistakes in the shareholder information recorded in the estate inventory or you have not provided the requested additional clarifications, the estate inventory deed will be returned to you unconfirmed. Please note that the fee will be charged also for a cancelled or expired application.

Do the following

• Print the application for the certification (in Finnish) from the agency’s website and fill it in. Alternatively, you can submit a free-form application.
• Submit the application, a certified copy of the estate inventory deed and copies of all of the appendices to the deed.
• Do not submit the original documents because the documents will be destroyed after they have been scanned.
• Send the application and the estate inventory deed including the appendices by post or by email.
• Documents are also accepted by the offices of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Application for the certification 

You can apply for a certification of the shareholders in the estate inventory deed if you are a shareholder of the estate, the surviving spouse, the person taking care of the property of the estate, the estate administrator, the estate distributor or the executor of the will. You can grant a power of attorney to a representative for drawing up the application. If the representative is a lawyer, a public legal aid attorney, a licenced legal counsel or if the authorisation has been recorded in the estate inventory deed, the representative does not need to attach a power of attorney to the application.

The application for a certification of the shareholders in the estate inventory deed will be processed only if the municipality of residence of the deceased was in Finland at the time of death.There is no time limit for applying for the certification, but a certification is possible only for the estate inventory deed of a person who died in 1966 or after that.

You can apply for a certification only for a completed estate inventory deed that has been signed by the person reporting the estate and two trustees. Make sure that the person reporting the estate and the two trustees are different people. The reports of family relationships and all of the other appendices to the estate inventory deed must be submitted with the application.