Santander young person trustee account - Please help???

ChrisDA95

Hello,

I am not good with the technicalities of banking, so could really do with some help

So anyway, I recently opened a Santander Basic bank account to help manage my finances a bit better, and I got a letter from Santander saying they may have another account matching my details. I then remembered my mother opened a trustee savings account (or something like that). So upon looking around, I found a page on MSE about dormant accounts, leading me to the mylostaccount website. I submitted an enquiry to santander through the website and under 2 weeks later, a letter from them arrived confirming they found the account.

Now here is the problem, the letter from Santander states I need to attend a local branch with ID, so I sent a PM via online banking requesting why I needed to exactly considering I already provided ID when opening my basic account, the reply was this

Dear Mr Allen,
Thank you for your email.

There is a dormant savings account held on another record that we have for you.

When your Basic account was opened, your records were duplicated because different information was entered on our system to what we originally held for you.

Upon reviewing the opening date on the existing savings account I have noted that it would have been open and held in trust meaning that you would be the beneficiary of the account. An account held in Trust cannot be accessed by the Beneficiary - therefore a Trustee cannot give the Beneficiary permission to access funds whilst the account continues to have a registered Trustee.

A Trustee can elect to be removed from the account at any time. If they are the sole trustee this will release the funds to the beneficiary.

For a Trustee to be removed from the account both the Trustee & Beneficiary must visit branch with ID

I apologise for any inconvenience.

The problem is the last sentence "For a Trustee to be removed from the account both the Trustee & Beneficiary must visit branch with ID". I was placed into foster care when I was younger and have not spoken to or seen my mother since.

So, is there anyway at all to get access to this account without my mother who is the trustee?

xylophone

Are you able to contact your mother, perhaps through a relative?

Neil_Jones

Are you sure the Trustee was actually your birth mother?
Could it possibly have been a foster parent who is the Trustee? It does happen though I suppose this depends on how long you lived with them and obviously if you lived for many years (or even you were permanently adopted by them) its plausible they could have set it up.

ChrisDA95

xylophone wrote: »

Are you able to contact your mother, perhaps through a relative?

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately not. I'm not really that close to, or have much contact with most of my relatives either.

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Are you sure the Trustee was actually your birth mother?
Could it possibly have been a foster parent who is the Trustee? It does happen though I suppose this depends on how long you lived with them and obviously if you lived for many years (or even you were permanently adopted by them) its plausible they could have set it up.

Yep, it was definitely her, only had one foster carer who was a guy.

I take it from the replies that it isn't possible to access the account without my mother being present?

Neil_Jones

You may do better to put such a request in writing as opposed to sending secure messages and then you'll be able to elaborate on the circumstances somewhat and it may be dealt with on a case by case basis.

There should be a procedure I would have thought for this sort of situation, there are probably no end of people in a similar situation.

jonesMUFCforever

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the account - what you have never had you never missed.
Try to get out of them the balance - if you can find that out then you have a decision to make - whether to chase this up or forget about it.
What are the chances of there being a huge balance there?

Ben8282

How old is this account?
Surely now that you are an adult you should be able to access your money. The 'trust' status cannot continue indefinitely.

jonesMUFCforever

Ben8282 wrote: »

How old is this account?
Surely now that you are an adult you should be able to access your money. The 'trust' status cannot continue indefinitely.

It can if the account has been set up as say Joe Bloggs RE A N Other.
In that circumstance it will always be in the name of Joe Bloggs which is why presumably they want both parties to attend a branch.