My wife and I recently made our wills. The solicitor advised us to make any sole bank a/cs each of us has into joint a/cs. He said that this would make it easier for the surviving spouse to access the deceased partner's money with just the death cert. Otherwise probate would have to be applied for and this could be costly.
I just checked the Citizens' Information web site and found this:
"If money is held in the deceased person’s name only, then family members usually cannot get access until probate is granted to the personal representative. But if the amount in an account is small, the bank may release it to the personal representative or the next of kin."
As there are several financial institutions involved, should we contact each now to find out the maximum amount they would release to the next-of-kin with only a death cert? Or is there a rough guide we could use now to define what they mean by "small"? Is it 100s or 1000s?
Hopefully neither of us will kick the bucket for many more years so the limit will probably go up by then. But it would be handy to have some idea now.
Thanks.
I just checked the Citizens' Information web site and found this:
"If money is held in the deceased person’s name only, then family members usually cannot get access until probate is granted to the personal representative. But if the amount in an account is small, the bank may release it to the personal representative or the next of kin."
As there are several financial institutions involved, should we contact each now to find out the maximum amount they would release to the next-of-kin with only a death cert? Or is there a rough guide we could use now to define what they mean by "small"? Is it 100s or 1000s?
Hopefully neither of us will kick the bucket for many more years so the limit will probably go up by then. But it would be handy to have some idea now.
Thanks.