Timeframe for banks to release funds

Nettiesmythe

Just wondered what sort of timeframe is fairly normal for banks to release funds once probate has been granted.TIA

Marcon

Nettiesmythe said:

Just wondered what sort of timeframe is fairly normal for banks to release funds once probate has been granted.TIA

Many banks will release funds before probate has been granted, depending on the amounts involved. See https://www.tmsolicitors.co.uk/probate-bank-limits-2022/ for current limits for major banks. They will often settle funeral expenses directly where this is requested.

If probate is needed because the amounts involved are over the threshold, then anything from a week to 3 months seems to be pretty normal.

Nettiesmythe

Thank you.

Pennylane

It was a couple of weeks in our case.

Nettiesmythe

Thank you.

CruisingSaver

It took 3 days from sending the grant of probate for me. The bank was TSB.

Nettiesmythe

That was very quick.I’m going to Barclays and Santander tomorrow and was just interested in peoples personal experience.

user1977

It will take as long as it takes for the withdrawal application to hit the desk of somebody suitably qualified to check that it's all ok. So depends on their workloads, but I wouldn't expect it to be long.

DJHILTON1971

CruisingSaver said:

It took 3 days from sending the grant of probate for me. The bank was TSB.

Still waiting to hear from them. Grant of Probate for my late father's estate was issued in December 2023, but the legal team dealing with his estate (Co-op Legal Services) were under the impression he had accounts with Lloyds Bank (some people still seem to be thinking of Lloyds TSB), so I sent bank statements to them proving he had TSB accounts a few weeks back.

Hope that doesn't delay things too much. He had other monies from NS&I & M&S Money that Co-op Legal Services have already received. Got a bit of a fear TSB won't hand the monies over but thought they legally had to once served with the G of P.

pjs493

All of my husband’s banks released funds before Probate was granted and it didn’t take long once they received a copy of the death certificate. In some cases it was a few days. 

I think Britannia took the longest but that was because their process was entirely paper based and they oddly wanted a copy of my ID to be signed as a true copy by a solicitor (which was just ridiculous considering it was an unused savings account with a little over £100 in it). Fortunately I have a friend who is a solicitor who did it for free because I hate to think how much one would have charged. 

I had to wait for Probate to have his ISA funds released, his private pension, and to pay off the mortgage (I could have paid it off earlier but would have had to pay the exit fees if I didn’t wait for Probate).

AmateurMoney

My experience, Nationwide took 24 hours to release funds after receiving the grant of probate. They also continued to pay interest post- ereavement, and were streets ahead for pro-a tive efficiency throughout. Barclays, in stark contrast, froze any interest payments (in effect keeping the money for itself after the date of death, and is taking a VERY long time to pay out, with extra levels of seemingly pointless process for things that had already been checked.