Executor Of Will

[Kazal]

Reading the replies to Jambutty I am prompted to write. I am joint executor of my partners will. When he passed away I rang his bank and asked them to freeze his account and was told they couldn't until they saw the death certificate. I told them it could be a week or more before we could get one and as I knew a direct debit was due wanted them to freeze his account. They declined and said it would be up to me to chase the money back. No amount of arguing came to any fruition. I told them I had been an executor for both my mother and brother and that their banks had frozen the accounts immediately and then set up an executor account for funds in and out and supplied us with a cheque book. They told me they don't do that without a grant of probate. I told them I would need to pay the funeral and they said I could have all the balances paid into an account of my choice and could then pay any bills. This did not seem right so I made an appointment to go to their local branch and speak to someone face to face, but when I got there she told me we had to talk to the person at the end of the phone who just insisted she couldn't freeze his account and I needed to have the money paid into my account and any cheques etc payable to him would have to be returned to the sender for the payee to be altered. I was so frustrated that I agreed the monies to be paid into into my personal account, but as there are 2 executors I'm not sure where I go from here.

[fiction-factory]

I would expect them to need to see a death certificate before they can do anything

[fiction-factory]

But sorry about your loss, Kazai.

[Buenchico]

The bank was correct to demand to see a death certificate. If you knew that a direct debit was due to go out of the account you should have contacted the firm which was due to take the money.

As long as your partner's estate ends up with the right people, there's no reason why the monies shouldn't go via your personal account. ('Good practice' might mean that an executor's account should be opened but it's not a legal requirement).

[bednobs]

they do need to see the death certificate

[ubasses]

Technically you should have a Death Certificate to freeze the account, but in my day we used to use common sense. An account would be frozen immediately & the person advising would be asked to bring Certificate in, if their was any difficulty, the paperwork issued by the Hospital/GP which is taken to Registrar for Cert. would be accepted pro tem. Of course no further action could be taken until the Certificate arrived, the Bank would then pay from the account any utility bills or Funeral Expense invoices presented to them by debiting the account No other assets would be paid away until Probate arrived. However in the interim an Executors account would be opened (on sight of Will) and set up with the cheque book held at Branch all ready to be activated on presentation of Probate. One thing they should never had done is pay any money into your account, they could put you in a very difficult situation should their be any problems with the other Executor or any beneficiaries.

[ubasses]

As Buenchico says there is no legal requirement to ope an Executors Account, as long as both Executors are in agreement to the account the money is to be paid. But this cannot be paid away until after Probate.

[Kazal]

I did take the death certificate with me today (we only got it yesterday)
but felt I had no choice but to take his money away from his bank otherwise it could have caused endless problems trying to reverse payments and receipts which we could well do without. I would like to transfer the money into a separate account but do not have time because £2000 needs to be paid to the undertaker early next week. I am really not happy with this situation

[ubasses]

I am not surprised Kazal, have you discussed this with the other Executor?. You need to make a joint decision about how you are going to move forward, especially if it is a larger or more complicated Estate.

[Buenchico]

>>> because £2000 needs to be paid to the undertaker early next week

Why?

When I arranged my father's funeral I made it perfectly clear to the funeral director that I'd got no money and he wouldn't get a bean until after I'd got probate and access to my father's estate. It wasn't a problem at all.

[fiction-factory]

I'm not sure you feel there would be "endless problems trying to reverse payments and receipts which we could well do without" if the account is frozen. Anyway, good luck with whatever you do

[bednobs]

did he have any cash in the bank? Ubasses gave me some good advice when my MIL died, to get a cheque from the bank made payable to the FD - we asked them and they did it, as the estate was so small

[ubasses]

The most worrying aspect of this is they would not freeze the account without a death certificate, but they were happy to allow Kazal to have the money out of the account and put into their own to pay for the Funeral. Something they should have done on receipt of invoice.

[jambutty]

In the end Kazal, I rang the solicitor dealing with my Mum's Estate and she told me that money could only be taken out of the accounts if both me and my brother request it, not one without the other. She never mentioned opening another account nor the death certificate. It all seems so complicated to me, you think once a Will is left it will be plain sailing, but it never is. As if losing my beloved Mum wasn't bad enough.