Death of Joint Account Holder

supa_nan

Hello and sorry if i've posted this in the wrong place.

After my Mum's death in 2009 my Dad added me to his Bank Accounts.

I do not use the accounts nor do I have any Bank Cards to the joint accounts.

He has three accounts 2 of which I am named on, these 2 have a fair bit of savings, £35 k in one and £45 k in the other.

Dad lives in a council house, and is reluctant to make a Will. Dad wants savings on his death to be shared between myself and other nominated family members.

In the event of his death will it have to go to Probate ?
Or as I am a joint account holder will the money just transfer over to me, which I can then allocate to family ?

Thanks for any replies.

CLAPTON

joint accounts are held jointly and severally so you both own the entire amounts.
so on death the survivor owns the joint accounts without probate.
the money doesn't actually transfer to you; you already own it.

depending upon the money outside the two joint a/cs you may still have to go for probate.

supa_nan

Thank you Clapton for your reply :beer:

Makes sense really. I did think that the money would be 'mine' (to share) We had made it clear to the Bank when we added my name, Dads reasons for doing this. And they never offered any negative comments.

The 2 Savings accounts I am named on are never used really. Dads 3rd account probably has less than £10 k in it, and he uses this to pay bills by DD etc..

CLAPTON

I'm not sure what you mean that you made it 'clear ' to the bank. What did you want them to do? Lots of elderly parents and offspring do this, it's your joint decision and has nothing really to do with the bank

If it's a standard joint account then the money is yours to spend if you wish; just like any other joint a/c.

getmore4less

I think there have been cases where the bank consider the joint ownership to be for convenience so not really a joint account and don't allow access, joint accounts can be held as tenants in common according to HMRC.
Chances are this is unlikley to happen.


Dad wants savings on his death to be shared between myself and other nominated family members


Do you have any siblings? If he dies intestate the estate gets shared between the children so this distribution could cause issues if the others are not happy with the distribution.

Another issue is that if you inherit the money through survivorship of the joint accounts then you will be gifting the money as it forms part of your estate, this may not be an issue if your assets are below £325k and remain that way for 7 years.

If you think you will end up dealing with the estate then a read of the IHT notes is worth while

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cto/forms/iht206-2006-1.pdf

there is the following.

Valuing the deceased's share of a bank account is quite easy, as the example before shows. But sometimes an account may be held in joint names just for convenience. For example, if an elderly person can no longer get out, they may add a son or daughter’s name to their bank account so the son or daughter can operate the account for them.
If an account is in joint names for convenience and the deceased provided all the money in the account, you should treat the account as if it was in the deceased’s sole name. Include the full balance of the account in box 14.3 (for joint assets) or 13.1 (if the account was held as tenants-in-common). But the opposite also applies, and if the deceased did not provide any of the money in the account then, so long as the provider did not intend to make a gift, there is no need to include anything about the joint account on form IHT205(2006).

supa_nan

CLAPTON wrote: »

I'm not sure what you mean that you made it 'clear ' to the bank. What did you want them to do?

What I meant was, we told the Bank that after the death of my Mum, who also had no will. That Dad wanted to add me to his account, I would not use the account. I was just added to simplify things on his death.

'What did I want them to do' I had hoped that they might have volunteered information that might cause a problem (if there was one)



If it's a standard joint account then the money is yours to spend if you wish; just like any other joint a/c.

Better hit the shops then

Thanks Clapton