Account Holder Unexpected Death
Scoflo
Posts: 329
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Hi, I might be overthinking this but the person who held the bank account for our small committee died after a period of illness. She had shared passwords to access the account however held the card and chequebook. I don't know the family so a bit unsure the best way forward. The money in the account has been transferred to a linked PayPal account in case it was frozen so that's fine, I think. Should I notify the bank? I have no death certificate to verify, or just wait until the family wind up her estate? The money in the account was for a specific event so only used over a period of a few months then it would lie dormant until the next year and really is no issue at all. It's "doing the right thing" I'm unsure about.
Thanks
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scottishflower2000 wrote: »Hi, I might be overthinking this but the person who held the bank account for our small committee died after a period of illness. She had shared passwords to access the account however held the card and chequebook. I don't know the family so a bit unsure the best way forward. The money in the account has been transferred to a linked PayPal account in case it was frozen so that's fine, I think. Should I notify the bank? I have no death certificate to verify, or just wait until the family wind up her estate? The money in the account was for a specific event so only used over a period of a few months then it would lie dormant until the next year and really is no issue at all. It's "doing the right thing" I'm unsure about.
Thanks
In whose name was the account?
If the account was in the name of this person, then you should not have accessed the account after death.0 -
scottishflower2000 wrote: »the person who held the bank account for our small committee
if it is in the "committee" name then the bank will be running the account as a club/society account and will have a set of forms and processes by which the bank mandate can be changed. In the event of the death of the nominated contact person known to the bank , they will also have a process to deal with changes arising in such circumstances.
as it appears that you can access the account online anyway and have cleared it of funds what is it you actually want to do? Continue but set up a new signatory? Close the account?0 -
As stated, if the account was in the name of the committee, then changing the signatories is a relatively trivial matter: the bank will have forms, they will want to know that at the meeting on X date it was agreed to change the signatories, to the following.
I don't know how large your committee is, but when I took over treasuring in a similar situation (two signatories, one of whom could not sign and the other no longer on the committee), my first act was to insist that we had any two of four signatories approved to operate the accounts. It's been a godsend when any of the four are away!Signature removed for peace of mind0 -
It's in the committee's name and I'm already designated signatory. Sadly amidst the changes, the treasurer became ill and not all the processes were completed. One could only be taken care of by a phonecall (despite a letter) and she simply wasn't able to consider making a call. I'll contact the bank myself and request a full change is now taken place. It's our final year and we may decide to run only with Paypal so unsure if we even want to keep the account. Really been caught on the hop but there's a lesson in there.0
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OK, so if it is in the name of the committee then it is not part of the treasurer's estate. In theory her family should return card and cheque book, either to you if they know who you are, or to the bank if they do not. But that may not be anywhere near the top of their lists of things to do.
If you're not going to use the bank account, you should get it closed.Signature removed for peace of mind0
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