Joint accounts / death

Hardupguy

seems im plagued with inept people at a time i can do without it.... another problem occurred with a pension claim if anybody can help....
she claimed ill health retirement from scheme ( only 6 months till actual date )....they dragged their feet and asked for a medical examination to satisfy themselves of claim....she was unable to attend as bed ridden and they advised me that forms would be forwarded to allow medical staff to confirm her terminal illness...nothing has arrived afetr a few weeks and now she has passed away...
does the claim continue from first request or will it default to simple death claim now..?
If latter then my calculations assume her estate will have less of a payout now....rather than the increased payments she may have aquired had they processed claim with little more diligence..

mike88

If you have to pay your lawyer to sort out the problem of gaining access to the money in your joint account then the bank must compensate you for the cost of their incorrect advice.

lurkylurky

Hardupguy wrote: »

it was the bank that told me they would need to freeze the account today when i was at branch advising them of my wifes death.

Sorry for your loss.

You might find an e-mail to the Chief Exec of the bank will get you the right advice. Which bank is it?

Ifts

Hardupguy wrote: »

They said that due to having a substanial amount in account this is normal...will take approx two weeks to change it to my name only, meantime all direct debits going both ways will be rejected.... Can they do this, i was under the impression that there would be no issues as long as they had evidence such as death Certificate...

Sometimes bank staff do make mistakes when advising customers and give out incorrect advice especially if they are new. I have been told conflicting information by different members of staff at the bank in the past.

Try to speak to the bank manager or someone in a senior position at the bank. Failing that as Errata suggests contact the bank's Bereavement Centre.

Hopefully they will not freeze your account and stop the direct debit payments, which will cause more problems if payments are missed.

Surely they cant cause you this hassle at a time like this, if however they don't sort it out and freeze the account, if I was you I would move the substantial amount to another bank at the earliest opportunity for the inconvenience caused.

I hope it was a mistake and they will sort it out for you once you have provided them with the death certificate.

seems im plagued with inept people at a time i can do without it.... another problem occurred with a pension claim if anybody can help....

See how it goes but you might want to start a new thread regarding this to get more advice from forum users, maybe the pensions board.

Newly_retired

How I wish it were true that banks co-operate fully with the bereaved. Far too many experiences suggest total ineptitude, even from Bereavement centres.
I hope that you soon get this sorted out, OP. Sorry for your loss.

Hardupguy

thanks to all who replied.....spoke to lawyer he agreed with me that the info given was wrong...so as advised contacted bereavment centre of Bank, who told me that this should not have happened.. local branch were contacted and they advised that the account was not frozen, wouldn't admmit that they made a mistake, so went back to branch and asked to speak to manager...received a part apology, stating that they were technically still correct..!!! not sure what that means...account is fine now and operating as normal....took 4 tel calls and 3 visits to sort what should have been simple procedure................
thanks once again for advice

hermante

Based on the experience of my parents' friends, some advice to everyone: Always keep accounts with some money in your sole name even if the majority of your money is in a joint account, and even if you have been married for 50 years - you never know what the bank is going to do and you don't want to have no money in case something happens. If a bank doesn't know what it's doing, any activity in a joint account just before someone passes away will look suspicious to them.

lisyloo

they dragged their feet

I would start a formal complaint and send any letter recorded delivery.
How long did it take?
I don't think you can expect these things to be instant even if in your circumstance you would obviously want it to happen quickly, you may not be the only case they are dealing with.
Sorry for your loss.