Death and estate inventory

The health care unit reports the date of death occurred in Finland to the Population Information System.  

If the death has not been recorded in the Population Information System, contact the physician who verified the death.  

If the doctor says that he has reported the death to us, you can contact us by phone on 0295 536 220 or by email at [email protected]. 

If the death has occurred abroad, a person close to the deceased must inform us of it using the instructions on our website. 

We save the data on the death in the Population Information System. 

When a person dies, the estate's property, debts and shareholders are listed in the estate inventory. The estate inventory must be held within three months of a person's death. For this purpose, a report on the deceased person's family relationships is needed to establish their spouse and heir(s).  

You will only need a life certificate for the estate inventory if you are the heir of the deceased person or the beneficiary of their will and information that you are alive is not contained in the report on family relations of the deceased.  

How to order a report on family relationships 

How to order a life certificate  

The estate inventory deed must be drawn up within three months of the death in the estate inventory. The completed estate inventory deed must be sent to the Tax Administration within one month of the estate inventory.  

We at the Digital and Population Data Services Agency do not draw up estate inventory deeds and cannot provide advice on how to prepare the estate inventory deed. Instead, you can ask for help from a bank, legal aid office or attorney, for example.  

Certification of the shareholders in an estate inventory deed 

Certification of the shareholders in the estate inventory deed is not mandatory. You may need it, for example, if the estate is selling an apartment in a housing company or real estate. In that case, we will confirm that the right shareholders of the estate have been entered in the estate inventory deed.  

You can apply to us for certification of the shareholders in the estate inventory deed once the estate inventory deed has been completed. 

Read more about certification of the shareholders in the estate inventory deed on our website. 

Heirs have the right to renounce their inheritance.  

Ask us to deposit your notification of renunciation of inheritance only if you have enforcement debts and you want to prevent the enforcement of your share of the estate in order to pay your debts. When you have renounced the inheritance before the enforcement decision was made and submitted the notification to us for deposit, your right to the inheritance or will may not be seized. 

Read more about renouncing your inheritance in enforcement on our website. 

Heirs, executors of wills, and persons taking care of the property of an estate can use the European Certificate of Succession to prove their position and authority in another EU Member State.  

We will issue a certificate when the testator has died. Remember to ensure that you request a certificate from the authority in the correct country.  

Read more about the European Certificate of Succession on our website.  

You cannot notify a new address or postal address for a deceased person, as we will not update the details of a deceased person. Instead, you can notify Posti of the address to which the mail of the death estate should be delivered. 
 

First, ask the bank if you need a certificate.  

If you need a certificate, you can order it from us following the instructions on our website. Please note that we can only issue a certificate if your family relationship is visible in the Population Information System. If this is not the case, you must wait for the reports on family relationships to be completed. Your kinship is reflected in the report on family relationships. 

The bank will be notified of the death when the date of death has been registered in the Population Information System. The transfer of information depends on how often banks update their customer data from the Population Information System. 

In this case, the guardian must only provide us with the final statement and its appendices. For example, an estate inventory deed does not need to be delivered to us. Read more instructions for different situations when guardianship ends.  

We do not have templates for the distribution of estate, the agreement for the distribution of matrimonial assets or the estate inventory deed. Nor do we advise on how to prepare them.  

Instead, personal assistance is available from experts in inheritance law, such as law firms, legal aid offices and banks. 

It cannot be registered because there is no register of wills in Finland. Nor do we confirm wills. 

Instructions for ordering a document are available in the Finland abroad service. 

First, select the country from which you are ordering the document.  

Then select "Travel and services", then "Family and citizenship" and "Enquiries on certificates from the parish register and addresses". 

If you need a death certificate of a specific person for an acceptable purpose, we can send you a certificate stating the person’s date of death. A fee is charged for the document. 

Please note that you must 

• specify the person in question (give some of the person’s personal details, such as the name and birth date) 

• explain the purpose for which you need the information. 

Follow the instructions on our web page to request the information.