What happens to money in a 're' account

Limeykitty

My partner's father died recently; he held a number of accounts for his grandchildren, some of which were set up as "Mr J Bloggs Re Miss A Bloggs" and others which were set up as "Mr J Bloggs, Miss B Bloggs".
We are confused as to who owns the money in these accounts - we know that he would want the kids to have the proceeds, but we have been told different things by different banks - that the money forms part of the estate, that it is payable to the child or that it's payable to the deceased's wife, who inherits everything under the terms of the will. Can anyone advise?
Incidentally, he died leaving debts and it's likely that the estate will be insolvent anyway.
Thanks in advance for any info.

daska

As a general rule any monies in joint accounts are the property of the surviving account holder and are therefore not part the estate. So the question is: are they actually joint accounts? Or are the names just labels on sole accounts? E.G. I have an account with my bank which allows me to separate my savings into mini-accounts which I can name however I choose (and I used to have one in DS1's name) but the accounts are all 'mine'. In which case the banks may be correct that they form part of the estate.