How to cash a cheque made out to the estate

Hi everyone, long time lurker first time poster.

My Dad passed away in February and I executed probate myself as a personal representative. The grant was issued in July. Both myself and my brother were executors and the sole beneficiaries. I’m still tidying up a few things and the other day I cancelled the home insurance my Dad had. Today I received a cheque for a refund and it is addressed to the estate of my late Dad.

I’m not sure how I will cash this as all of his assets have been distributed. I actually paid this insurance premium for my Dad and my brother is in agreement that the refund is due to me only. Would I be able to lodge this to my bank? I suspect not, but am at a loss as to what to do.

Any advice much appreciated!

Your bank probably won't accept it but you could try?

Otherwise, ask them to re-issue to you as there is no executor's account?

If you also attach a short note from you brother to confirm that he is happy with that, it should do the trick.

mf

Had a similar experience 5 years after my relative died (bank overcharged at the time).

Sent letter of explanation & chq was reissued.

Whilst the money should by right have been distributed to 6 beneficiaries, the value was so little per person, that the other executor agreed with me that we'd donate it to charity.

Thanks guys. The insurance company know that estate has already been distributed & I specifically asked for the cheque to be issued to me as I was his nominated contact on the policy & they knew I had paid for the policy. I’ll get back on to them & ask. I have already sent them a letter signed by both of us asking for the refund to be issued, but obviously they didn’t bother reading it properly.

In my experience the payee on the cheque says something like "The legal representatives of Mary Murphy".

If you sign the rear of the cheque the bank will probabaly accept, especially if you have the same surname as the deceased.

Banks may have some threshold where they get suspicious. Mrs NRC got a few rebates after her father's death over the years (never more than €250) and she was always able to lodge them.

if the cheque is low value then lodge it via a cheque lodgement machine in your branch, it's unlikely the bank will check payee on a low value cheque against where it was lodged

Peanuts20 said:

if the cheque is low value then lodge it via a cheque lodgement machine in your branch, it's unlikely the bank will check payee on a low value cheque against where it was lodged

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If you this make sure to sign the rear. It can't do any harm.