Santander ISA

sunsetboulevard

When my uncle moved to a care home earlier this year he asked me to sort out some of his personal affairs, mainly advising different banks of his new address. Although I did not have Power of Attorney for him, I wrote letters on his behalf (which he signed) about his change of address.

However the one bank who seemed quite obstructive was Santander, who kept asking for more and more information. The sort of info they were asking for was saying things like we haven't got his signature on our system so we don't know if that is actually his signature on that letter about his change of address. This was despite me showing them 2 Santander savings books belonging to him! Admittedly, he rarely went into Santander but had a fair amount of money in there.

Additionally, he mentioned to me on several occasions that he also had an ISA at Santander (which he stated he opened when they were still Abbey National). This is worth about £30,000. I asked him where the paperwork was and he said he wasn't sure. I again wrote to Santander (he signed the letter) asking for the account number and the value of this ISA and they sent back a letter stating they needed more information, namely, the account number. What the hell!

My uncle died recently and I have started sorting through all his paperwork but have so far failed to find said paperwork for the ISA. I will shortly be either ringing Santander Bereavement or possibly actually going in to uncle's local branch of Santander with the death certificate and his 2 savings books to advise them of his death.

I am wondering if there is going to be any problem getting them to admit that he had an ISA based on the earlier experiences I've had trying to deal with them. Obviously, I'm not expecting them to just hand over any money he had, I will have to apply for probate but that will not be for a few weeks yet. At this moment in time I just want to get figures ready to put on the probate forms.

Has anybody had any experience of this where paperwork is missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

pphillips

From what I've heard other people say, the bereavement service of the banks are quite different to their normal service because of the obvious sensitivity that is expected of them.

Savvy_Sue

I know when each of my parents died, as I took the death certificate into each bank, they were happy to search for all accounts with that name / address.

You may find the http://www.mylostaccount.org.uk/ service useful.

sunsetboulevard

Thanks for your replies.

I'm hoping that when I go into the branch with the death certificate and i.d. proof for myself, that that will be sufficient for them. I don't know if they'll give me some kind of printout with account numbers and balances for each account. I'm sure when my mother died Barclays gave me a printout of her account number and balance so I'm hoping Santander will do the same.

eddyinfreehold

In my experience Nationwide were very forthcoming, gave me the account totals and the forms for reclaiming for Probate. Yorkshire BS confirmed the existance of an account with almost minimal proof of an account. HSBC in spite of there being a six figure sum in 3 accounts were extremely difficult to pin down. The key for you is possessing any documents proving an account number and a pass book, a copy of the death certificate (or an interim one which may be accepted by some institutions), and endless copies of your personal ID. As I had an expired passport and an old fashioned paper driving licence at the time I had to get a new passport and provide 3 separate utility bills in my name. Bills shared with my wife were not accepted by HSBC. Some form of photographic ID is pretty much essential. The financial institutions are paranoid about money laundering.

My personal approach would be to write a letter to each bank/building society giving account details, name etc and informing them of the death and enclosing a death certificate copy plus an SAE for its return requesting details of all holdings, account numbers and totals.