Account for 3 people requiring joint agreement for withdrawals from trust fund

Graham_C

I am one of 3 trustees of a will that has gone through probate. The Will requires that the balance of the estate be held in trust for the wife of the deceased; she is named as one of the trustees and is entitled to interest from the account. Also the trustees are permitted to withdraw from the trust fund to pay for upkeep of the deceased's house that is held in trust until death of the wife.
Problem we are having is where to find a suitable account. The accounts I have searched for online appear to limit account names to 2 whereas we require 3. Also it is required to have all 3 trustees agree to withdrawals, so I guess this would be by a cheque signed by all? Another concern is that the fund exceeds the U.K. Guarantee limit, so would be vulnerable if the account provider were to fail?
I hope that someone who has knowledge/experience of this situation can suggest options. Thanks

Yorkshireman99

AFAIK the guarantee only applies to accounts of individuals. Even if there are three trustees there is no reason why all three should have to sign.

securityguy

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

AFAIK the guarantee only applies to accounts of individuals. Even if there are three trustees there is no reason why all three should have to sign.

No, it applies to a much wider range than that. The exceptions are here: https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/COMP/4/2.html

I can't see any reason why a trust would be excluded.

But more generally, yes, the "all three must sign" thing is excessive. If the trustees mistrust each other that much, they have much deeper problems.

jjj1980

It could be written into the Will that all three Trustees must agree to each withdrawal. Comments about it being excessive etc are not providing any help to the OP


Some banks will only allow a maximum of "Any 2 to Sign" on accounts however would be worth a look at Cater Allen as thy do allow more.


https://www.caterallen.co.uk/reserve-account-for-trusts


They normally deal via financial advisors but their website gives the contact details fo if the Trustees themselves are handling the application.


It may also be worth looking at keeping a fluid cash amount with one institution and then a longer term investment elsewhere to help with the guaranteed protection issue.

Yorkshireman99

It is unlikely for a clause to be written into a will requiring all executors to sign a bank withdrawal. In fact a will is unlikely to mention such at all. It sounds more likely that someone has wrongly understood the difference between the three trustees having to act together and to have three signatures on the bank withdrawal. The three would have agreed to the number to operative the account when it was set up. There is no reason that cannot subsequently changed to two.

Savvy_Sue

You could presumably get round the requirement to act in agreement by having any two to sign, but keeping a paper trail of all 3 of you agreeing to things. but where does the money go when the trust is wound up on the wife's death? If it's to the other two trustees, who's going to argue if you don't all three sign things? And have you got plans in place for one of you losing capacity?