Unfair probate treatment.

peter_batty

Saving organisations and related banks may be taking spouses and executors for a ride at time of bereavement by insisting, unnecessarily on a grant of probate. this strategy delays them from paying out a frozen account claim.- One for Martin this as it may be forcing people to pay 250.00 to apply even when the estate is small.
Could be another PPI type of scam.

Olinda99

The alternative being of course that just anyone can walk into the bank and ask for the money ?

No need for probate - just run it on a first come first served basis.

eskbanker

peter_batty said:

Saving organisations and related banks may be taking spouses and executors for a ride at time of bereavement by insisting, unnecessarily on a grant of probate. this strategy delays them from paying out a frozen account claim.- One for Martin this as it may be forcing people to pay 250.00 to apply even when the estate is small.
Could be another PPI type of scam.

Assuming it's not an entirely hypothetical post, who specifically are you referring to, i.e. which institutions do you consider have unnecessarily low thresholds for requiring probate?

It would seem an odd 'scam' when the £250 (£273?) goes to a completely different public body....

masonic

A number of banks do waive this requirement unless amount of savings held is large. To do this, an institution would need to be confident that there will be no disagreements over the deceased's will and those institutions without the in-house expertise would likely err on the side of caution. I'd imagine some of the top paying savings providers are operating on shoestring budgets and don't have the resources for this. Where spouses are involved, having as much held jointly as possible will ease the difficulty of some providers requiring probate.

Mojisola

peter_batty said:

Saving organisations and related banks may be taking spouses and executors for a ride at time of bereavement by insisting, unnecessarily on a grant of probate. this strategy delays them from paying out a frozen account claim.- One for Martin this as it may be forcing people to pay 250.00 to apply even when the estate is small.
Could be another PPI type of scam.

NS&I usually want probate if the holding is over £5000 but many institutions will release large sums to the executor - £25,000 or more.

dunstonh

Most banks have a small estates limit where they will not require probate unless probate is being obtained for some other reason.  You cannot use the small estate exemption where probate is being obtained (although in reality, it almost certainly happens at times).  Typically figures around £5k to £70k.

Could be another PPI type of scam.

And how is the bank benefitting from this as it is unclear from your post?

HHarry

Lloyds was £50k.  Ive got no problem paying to prove my entitlement at that figure.

fwor

As Mojisola says, NS&I have a ridiculously low limit, which is easily exceeded by even the smallest of estates if the deceased had Premium Bonds or similar.

I would agree with the suggestion that this limit should be made more sensible (i.e. in line with UK banks), but I don't see how anyone could define it as a "scam"...

peter_batty

Here's the gist. My wife died 10th March leaving the estate to me. 3 executors. Self, son and daughter.No problem with any financial organisations, including NS&I PB's over 10k. Raisin. via it's administrators MAM. Insisted on G of P at outset. They had a copy of the will so I questioned the reason. I was told this was their  policy. 2 challenges later when informing them of NS&I payment purely on copy of will they withdrew Gof P requirement for small estates declaration forms.Gopt them completed, witnessed on 6th July. Still not paid out. Many delays, errors and piecemeal requests. This is now 4 months since the claim was lodged. Interest and bonuses only paid to date of death so bankers benefit from delaying settlement.

Albermarle

So in fact you are just complaining about one organisation - Raisin ?
From other posts on this forum , they seem not well regarded for customer service generally.

peter_batty

Sorry. Forgot to mention that Raisin/MAM changed on the basis the 2 amounts were only 5k each. They knew this at the start. Their policy apparently is flexible where the amount is under 10k per bank so why did they insist 3 times on a full G of P? I am interested to know if this is systemic in the small margins finance institutions, If so, How many others have automatically gone to the expense of Probate when unnecessary? The cost involved in the SED process is only 10.00 per signature witnessed - total = 60.00
The reality is, they don't have to go through this process at all. This is why I believe there is something akin to the PPI malarky. Have registered my concerns with the FCA who infer Raisinet al may be in conflict with the FCA handbook Principles. Problem is, it took Martin to raise the PPI fiasco.