Legal situation regarding items for safe keeping in bank.

I

IsleOfMan

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My father has two envelopes for safe keeping in his bank. We are told that one of them is his will. He has indicated to us that a certain person is the executor of his will. Can that person call to the bank on my fathers death and ask for those two envelopes to be given to him? There will be no way to prove on my father's death that this person is the executor because this information is only contained in an envelope in the bank. Will the bank just give them to him because he says that he is the executor?
 
As far as I know there would usually be two copies of a will , the original and a copy.
Your father probably still holds a copy.
 
There is usually a receipt for items held as safe keeping which needs to be produced for collection. Also the bank usually has no idea what is in the envelopes held. I had stuff in the bank for safe keeping and it was set up so that there were two names on the receipt and both had to go to bank to take out the item except in the case of death of one in which case the remaining one went in with a copy of death cert. Perhaps your father should set it up this way.
 
Yes. There is a receipt for the safe keeping items held. Does having this receipt entitle the bearer to collect the envelopes?
 
Don't know, the bank had copies of the signatures of the two named on the receipt in my case so once signatures matched there was no problems.
 
Billo said:
As far as I know there would usually be two copies of a will , the original and a copy.
Your father probably still holds a copy.
Click to expand...

The original executor might hold a copy of the original will. It looks as if there is now a new will in an envelope in the bank with a new executor. Nobody wants the old executor calling to the bank with a copy of the old will pretending that this is the current will and being given the security held envelope containing the new will.
 

Has the old executor been told that there's a new will?
 
Well I'm talking particularly about the OP's case where an executor has a will that s/he believes to be still valid showing up with a copy of a death certificate or notice and producing it at the Bank who may not have been informed that this will is not valid. Would the Bank be to blame in that instance, unfair I would have thought.
It makes things clearer to everyone if everyone knows that previous wills have been superceded.
 
If your father has made a new will with a new executor then he needs to inform his older executor of same. Otherwise he risks leaving a bit of a mess behind...
 
emeralds said:
If your father has made a new will with a new executor then he needs to inform his older executor of same. Otherwise he risks leaving a bit of a mess behind...
Click to expand...
This wouldn't stop the old executor from still getting hold of the will though?
 
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