dogsallowed

dogsallowed

My father has died and left me savings in the building society of which some are in Guaranteed Reserve accounts and won't reach their maturity date for another two years. Can I leave them there or do I have to cash them and change them into my name?

Onawingandaprayer

On his death (sorry for your loss) they should be frozen ready to be encashed on behalf of his beneficiaries. They cannot carry on as before.

opinions4u

Unless Halifax has changed its policy the executor has a choice.

Close the account without penalty (ideal if the rate is poor) or continue the account to maturity.

Personally, unless it's a really good rate, I'd get it closed.

Onawingandaprayer

opinions4u wrote: »

Unless Halifax has changed its policy the executor has a choice.

Close the account without penalty (ideal if the rate is poor) or continue the account to maturity.

Personally, unless it's a really good rate, I'd get it closed.

I'm sure that's not always the case. Certainly when my father passed away the various fixed term accounts he had were frozen and the capital interest paid to the estate up to that point.

This is from a probate guide:
Savings held in joint names will nearly always be as Joint Tenants so generally these will not be part of the estate for probate purposes and will pass to the joint owner. Generally all that is needed in this case is to ask the relevant institution to remove the deceased's name with a copy of the death certificate.

Savings held by an individual will be frozen until a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration confer the authority of the Personal Representative to access them. Some institutions allow access to sole accounts if the amounts are relatively small (often up to £5,000) and some will arrange payment of the funeral expenses on presentation of the funeral bill. When you inform each institution of the death they will write back to you with details of how to close or transfer accounts.

Generally, although not always, the death of an account holder should not lead to a financial penalty. For instance, fixed rate, fixed term accounts which normally require money to held held for a certain period will often allow the account to be closed with interest, or will allow the estate or beneficiaries to hold the account to term.

ISAs cannot be held after death and will be closed immediately the holding institution is informed. The money should be transferred by the institution to an account paying a reasonable interest rate but charging the savings tax rate.

Guess it depends on the institution.

dogsallowed

Thank you so much for your reply. At last I know what to do. Now the problem of getting probate, mixed messages on that too, still I appreciate the advice on the savings.

xylophone

http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/HelpCentre/pdf/HelpandUnderstanding.pdf

opinions4u

xylophone wrote: »

http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/HelpCentre/pdf/HelpandUnderstanding.pdf

That PDF is dated 2008. I would think it likely that their new masters at Lloyds Banking Group have moved the goalposts since.

xylophone

opinions4u wrote: »

That PDF is dated 2008. I would think it likely that their we masters at Lloyds Banking Group have moved the goalposts since.

Possibly but there is some good general advice and helpful pages where you can list accounts held with other organizations as well as Halifax - a good aide memoire/organizer.