What happens to savings bonds

Millie36

My mother in law passed away at Christmas and my husband and brother are trying to sort out her finances. They were joint poa's for the last 4 years while she was in a care home. They invested her savings in bonds to provide a monthly income to go towards her care home fees. Some were taken out in her name and some in my husbands and some in his brothers (this was done so that not too much was invested in one building society in her name). The problem now is if the bonds are in their names but her money was used to buy them, are they part of her estate and therefore need declaring in probate. Any advice greatfully apprecaited as my husband is very worried about sorting the money out so that it can be distributed as per his mothers wishes.

getmore4less

This is something the executor needs to sort out.

AIUI as the estate is the benifitial owner these need to be added to the assets.

The accounts will need to be closed at some point so they can be distributed allthough this does not have to happen imediately.

The current holders could give other money in subtitute if they wanted to keep the bonds or ifthye are benifitiaries this could be part/all of their distribution.

troubleinparadise

Firstly, sorry for the loss of your MIL.

The money invested in the bonds was hers, the action taken by the POAs. So yes, the monies should be returned to her estate - or at least declared - for Probate. As Getmore4less says, if they are beneficiaries then the distribution could be adjusted accordingly.

I imagine as POAs they kept records of financial transactions taken on her behalf anyway, so are able to show what happened to her assets if needed.

Millie36

Many thanks for your replies. My husband is also executor for his mothers estate which is why he is trying to find out answers before starting form filling.