Bank says probate necessary - is it?

Hi,

Does anyone know how flexible banks are on the issue of allowing the sole beneficiary of a will (the spouse in this case) access to the funds from the matured SSIA account of their deceased spouse without the costly need of taking out probate?

The bank in question has told the surviving spouse that if their late spouse's estate was worth over E25,000, which it is, then probate will be necessary.

Why is this the case when there is no tax between spouses - is tax the issue here?

Would appreciate any advice, thanks.

PS Should have added, I have been told banks can be flexible in cases like this and know of one widow who experienced such 'flexibility'.

I don't think that it's mandatory in all cases even for such amounts. My mother gained control of my father's assets without probate. It may be that in the long run probate is a better/safer way of sorting out the estate though. I never really understood. The only problem she had was with transferring some Vodafone shares and this remains unresolved as they initially insisted on a grant of probate, then relented and allowed for a small estates indemnity form and some other documentation, then lost the application and draft for charges so it's still in limbo.

ClubMan said:

I don't think that it's mandatory in all cases even for such amounts. My mother gained control of my father's assets without probate. It may be that in the long run probate is a better/safer way of sorting out the estate though. I never really understood. The only problem she had was with transferring some Vodafone shares and this remains unresolved as they initially insisted on a grant of probate, then relented and allowed for a small estates indemnity form and some other documentation, then lost the application and draft for charges so it's still in limbo.

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Thanks for that Clubman, that backs up what I'd been told, ie that they can be flexible on this kind of thing. I think it's probably worth asking them to reconsider their request for probate (or 'letters of administration' - is that the same thing??) because it just seems like an unnecessary expense when the will is so straightforward, ie one beneficiary, no disputes at all.

Your Vodafone muddle is sadly familiar, in this case it's bordered on comical the mistakes the bank has made with very basic requests from the surviving spouse, eg losing forms that were filled in, sending forms to the wrong dept, issuing new bank cards in the name of the late spouse, and not the surviving spouse,etc. Bewildering stuff.

Hi,

I had a similiar experience with one bank when my father died. He had one deposit account which was also slightly over the threshold and they too asked for probate. His main bank did not look for it as it happened.

Someone advised me to go to the bank and present the funeral expenses bill to them and ask them to release the funds neccessary to pay it, to my mother. The bank did this instantly and without question. This in turn lowered the balance bringing the account under the threshold.

I then requested the balance of the funds a few days later and that was that. I am not sure if this would work with an SSIA account though.

I had am unpleasant experience with BOI where they wanted a grant of administration to release €1000 from my late Brother in laws account. There seems to be loads of different policies even within the same bank.