Paying for funeral? A question.

pearl123

Hi, I paid a large deposit for my mother funeral out of my own account.
I still have third party access to my mother accounts, as I haven't yet had them frozen. I am able to pay the remaining amount directly out of her account.
Would it be best that I now pay the whole bill totally or pay the remainder from my mothers account?
I realise I can claim it all back from the estate.
I suppose I'm just trying to make it less complex.

Skiddaw1

I'd speak to her bank and make it formal. They'll usually make arrangements for you to withdraw sufficient funds to cover the funeral expenses.

Malthusian

If you have Power of Attorney you no longer have third party access as it ended on her death.

If it's a third-party access specific to the bank I would imagine the same applies, although it may depend on the bank as it's a specific agreement with them.

Either way it comes to the same thing - notify them of the death and claim the funeral expenses as Skiddaw said.

Tom99

pearl123 wrote: »

Hi, I paid a large deposit for my mother funeral out of my own account.
I still have third party access to my mother accounts, as I haven't yet had them frozen. I am able to pay the remaining amount directly out of her account.
Would it be best that I now pay the whole bill totally or pay the remainder from my mothers account?
I realise I can claim it all back from the estate.
I suppose I'm just trying to make it less complex.

Depends what you mean by 3rd party access. If you are a joint account holder then its ok to continue running the account. If you mean that you log-on online pretending to be your mother and send a faster payment its not ok but I doubt the bank will make a big fuss if you do.

Dymphna60

Tom99 3 rd party access is an arrangement
set up by account holder whilst alive to allow a named person to use the account.
What the account holder allows is arranged officially with the bank . Often used when a person has capacity but physically frail.

OP I think it would be less complex to do things in the official manner . No need to add to your troubles by having to answer any questions by the bank about using your mothers account after her death.

pearl123

Ok thank your for your responses. The electricity company are supposed to me making a refund, via bank transfer and as soon as that gone through I'll freeze everything.

pip895

Don't know if it might help - What I did was opened a bank account in my name and then added a float of a few thousand to it. I used this account after Dads account was frozen for all "estate" management transactions. Dads banks transferred his funds into this account after a couple of weeks and I was then able to remove my "float". It has helped keep things separate and I haven't had anyone yet require the use of an official "estate account".