Unclaimed bank account 10 December 2011 at 9:57PM in Reclaiming mortgage fees, council tax, etc 4 replies 1.1K views

mpd1958

Hi,
my father in law died 16 months ago and his rather large estate was settled by his solicitor in july this year.

My wife was the executor of her fathers will.

We have just had forwarded to us from his old home address notification of the maturing of a rather large Post Office investment, that we did not know existed. (this would not take us over the inheritance tax threshold)

How would we go about claiming this money without going through the solicitor and incuring some hefty fees?

regards
Mark

IanManc

If your wife was the executor then she should have the Grant of Probate which names her as the person with the authority to gather in and distribute the assets of the estate. She should contact the savings provider and tell them that her father has died. They will tell her what she needs to do to obtain payment of the proceeds of the bond. Usually they want a claim form to be filled in, and sight of the Grant of Probate - you can probably find some information straight away on what to do in the event of an account holder's death from their website. Once she's received the money your wife is then obliged to distribute the money according to the terms of the will.

The portion of the interest on the bond that has accrued since the death is subject to tax as income of the estate, but if the interest on the bond is paid net of tax - as is normal in the UK - then the tax liability will already have been satisfied so HMRC won't be interested.

mpd1958

Thank you for your reply,

We will follow your advice.

withabix

You normally have to go through Probate again, because this account was not declared on the Probate forms.

You can do this yourself - you do not need a Solicitor.

Fees will come to just over £100.

IanManc

withabix wrote: »

You normally have to go through Probate again

You don't have to go through Probate again in England and Wales - the Grant of Probate that exists already give the Executor the authority to gather in all the assets of the estate.

It is quite common for other assets to turn up during the administration of an estate, especially bank or building society accounts, where correspondence arrives, or old passbooks are found when a house is being finally cleared, sometimes a long while after the Grant has been issued.

A problem would arise if the newly discovered asset took the estate over the inheritance tax threshold, but the OP says that this is not the case here.