Joint Bank Account for Elderly Relatives

[johnmcnamara]

Hi Everyone,

My uncle and auntie are now quite elderly and currently have 2 separate bank accounts. I was speaking to someone last night whose wife had died
and had a lot of trouble accessing his wifes account. His advise was to try to get them to open a joint account and put all their money into it
should one of them pass on.

Sorry for being morbid btw.

Thanks in advance for all advice,
John

 

[dewdrop]

It all depends on what they wish to do with their money when they die. By putting all the funds into a joint account the money will pass to the survivor and be available on productin of a death cert.

 

[Homer]

It all depends on what they wish to do with their money when they die. By putting all the funds into a joint account the money will pass to the survivor and be available on productin of a death cert.

If it's a joint account, will they even need to produce a death cert?

 

[Ann1]

If it's a joint account, will they even need to produce a death cert?

They will not need a death certificate to make a withdrawal.....but I think what Dewdrop means is there would be a necessity to notify the financial institution that one of the joint member of the account had passed away. The bank could then change the account details to just one account holder.

 

[dewdrop]

this is what i meant as ANN1 says

 

[beffers]

If they open a joint account, the funds automatically go to the other party on the demise of the other. So if they are both ok with that, nothing to worry about. But if they intended to leave (for example) half of their estate to their surviving spouse and the other half to their kids, the funds in the joint account do not form part of the estate. The surviving spouse gets it all. They may want to consider that too.

Would definitely recomend joint accounts. My parents had every thing separate. My mother paid half the household bills. Dad paid the other half. After my father died, the folks at Ulster Bank were horrible to my mother. She was fine with not being able to access the funds in his accounts until after the will was probated. My dad was a bit of a messer when it came to money, so she just wanted to sort out anything that needed sorting. She just wanted information on the account such as did he have any outstanding standing orders that needed paying by her now, depositing pension checks into his account, was his account in overdraft etc etc. The bank manager refused to even speak to her, answer her letters or return any of her calls. He would only speak to the executor of Dad's estate. As he was overseas for 3 months after my Dad died, she was in utter limbo land for ages. That would not have happened if they had joint accounts.