Cheque made payable to..." Estate of...."

dmurray0

Hi,

My Aunt lost her Husband several months ago and we are looking advice on a problem she has encountered. They both have/had wills made out stating that whoever passed first, the other person received the whole estate. My uncle had shares from a company called CBA while he worked in New Zealand many years ago. We contacted them an sent them the Death Certificate, Will, form of authority etc and they sent her a cheques for Aus$ 12,144. It is made out to ..."The Est of Mr......" She tried to lodge it in her account but the bank (Santander) refused to deposit it. She was then advised by a friend to open an Estate Account and deposit it there, again with Santander, but again they have refused to deposit it. They state it must be made out solely in her name, even though they also have seen the Will, Certificate etc. How does she get this cheque lodged? We were told by the solicitor a grant of probate was not needed as the shares were the only thing solely in her husband's name.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this, and comments appreciated .

Keep_pedalling

Most banks seem to be very reluctant to open estate accounts, and just as reluctant to take non Stirling cheques.

Try ringing round a few banks to see if you can find one that will allow you to do this.

Margot123

Have you been in contact with the issuer?
Perhaps it is their automated procedure to make cheques out in this way.

You could ask them to re-issue it as it is made out to an entity that doesn't exist and is therefore worthless due to the fact it cannot be cashed.
Also explain to them how this is causing unnecessary distress to a bereaved family.

Silvertabby

Margot123 wrote: »

Have you been in contact with the issuer?
Perhaps it is their automated procedure to make cheques out in this way.

You could ask them to re-issue it as it is made out to an entity that doesn't exist and is therefore worthless due to the fact it cannot be cashed.
Also explain to them how this is causing unnecessary distress to a bereaved family.

Worth a try - but they may ask for probate first, just to cover themselves in case another claimant comes along in the future.

Yorkshireman99

dmurray0 wrote: »

Hi,

My Aunt lost her Husband several months ago and we are looking advice on a problem she has encountered. They both have/had wills made out stating that whoever passed first, the other person received the whole estate. My uncle had shares from a company called CBA while he worked in New Zealand many years ago. We contacted them an sent them the Death Certificate, Will, form of authority etc and they sent her a cheques for Aus$ 12,144. It is made out to ..."The Est of Mr......" She tried to lodge it in her account but the bank (Santander) refused to deposit it. She was then advised by a friend to open an Estate Account and deposit it there, again with Santander, but again they have refused to deposit it. They state it must be made out solely in her name, even though they also have seen the Will, Certificate etc. How does she get this cheque lodged? We were told by the solicitor a grant of probate was not needed as the shares were the only thing solely in her husband's name.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this, and comments appreciated .

Go back to the bank and ask to see the manager. The cashier probably is not properly trained. Make a formal complaint if needed,

TBagpuss

I agree that the simplest thing to do may be to contact the issuer and ask them to resend it payable to your aunt, or alternatively to see whether they can send a bank transfer instead.

Eviesmummy

I don't have any advice, but we have a similar problem. My husbands Great Aunt died recently leaving her very small estate in a mess. She moved into a nursing home 10 yrs ago and basically just left all her (little) finances as they were the day she moved in, with no forwarding address. To the extent that her small private pension was frozen because they couldn't contact her. They are happy to pay out the money she was due, but as we don't have probate (estate barely enough to cover the cost of the funeral so probate not required) they are having to take legal advice as to how they go about paying it. They were happy to pay into an estate account, but again because we don't have probate we can't get a bank to open an estate account, especially as we have a complication that the only executor named on the will has died, so even though we are the only beneficiary, we aren't an official executor, and to get a solicitor to sort that would cost more that there is likely to be left after the funeral is paid for.
Other places, banks, post office account have just asked that we sign letters of indemnity so that they are not liable to any other claim on the estate (there isn't any other family left so that isn't going to happen), maybe you could ask them if that is something they might consider before putting the cheque into your name?
Please update on how you get on, there must be lots of people out there battling with similar issues, and maybe we can help each other with any information that we come across.

Eviesmummy

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Go back to the bank and ask to see the manager. The cashier probably is not properly trained. Make a formal complaint if needed,

If it's anything like the manager in our bank you are unlikely to get far. We were fobbed off, given incorrect advice and made to feel like we were wasting his time. However the people on the phone banking help line of the same bank (Barclays) were brilliant - they actually knew what they were talking about and couldn't do enough to help.
Once this whole mess is sorted once and for all I'll be making a formal complaint against the branch manager.

Margot123

TBagpuss wrote: »

I agree that the simplest thing to do may be to contact the issuer and ask them to resend it payable to your aunt, or alternatively to see whether they can send a bank transfer instead.

Companies don't usually send payments via bank transfer as they cannot verify who the end recipient is, hence they issue cheques.

getmore4less

Eviesmummy wrote: »

I don't have any advice, but we have a similar problem. My husbands Great Aunt died recently leaving her very small estate in a mess. She moved into a nursing home 10 yrs ago and basically just left all her (little) finances as they were the day she moved in, with no forwarding address. To the extent that her small private pension was frozen because they couldn't contact her. They are happy to pay out the money she was due, but as we don't have probate (estate barely enough to cover the cost of the funeral so probate not required) they are having to take legal advice as to how they go about paying it. They were happy to pay into an estate account, but again because we don't have probate we can't get a bank to open an estate account, especially as we have a complication that the only executor named on the will has died, so even though we are the only beneficiary, we aren't an official executor, and to get a solicitor to sort that would cost more that there is likely to be left after the funeral is paid for.
Other places, banks, post office account have just asked that we sign letters of indemnity so that they are not liable to any other claim on the estate (there isn't any other family left so that isn't going to happen), maybe you could ask them if that is something they might consider before putting the cheque into your name?
Please update on how you get on, there must be lots of people out there battling with similar issues, and maybe we can help each other with any information that we come across.

You don't need a solicitor,

You would need LOA with will attached.
small estate the cost would be just to swear the oath.
otherwise £215 + above if you have to pay.


edit:

you might also need the death certificate for the named executor that died..

Eviesmummy

getmore4less wrote: »

You don't need a solicitor,

You would need LOA with will attached.
small estate the cost would be just to swear the oath.
otherwise £215 + above if you have to pay.


edit:

you might also need the death certificate for the named executor that died..

Thanks, that's worth knowing for when the pension company get back to us.
Yes, we have the death certificate of the executor.