Four Different Banks with probate - four very different experiences

tetrarch

Firstly Nat West for the Executor Account - What a farce. 

You can't open a joint Executor account in branch, in fact you can't do ANYTHING in branch. You have to: 

Open a new account online
THEN
Add a joint account holder online
THEN
Get account changed to executor account (which you DO need to go into the branch for)

We went to three banks/Building Societies yesterday and had three very different experiences. None of these institutions had been advised of my MIL's passing and all had the same rough amount in them (that required probate)

Yorkshire 

An extremely efficient process (despite a lot of manual form-filling)
Dealt with by a very helpful cashier
Left after less than 10 minutes with the process completed and the promise of a cheque (no bank transfer option) within 10 days

Nationwide

This was an almost pointless visit. Despite going armed with Grant of Probate and Death Certificate they wouldn't do anything apart refer to their Bereavement Centre and were obsessed with Identifying Mrs Tet, despite her having her DL and a Council Tax bill on her
Left with a promise that the Bereavement Centre "would be in touch"
No idea how long or how the funds would be released

Santander

Probably the "kindest" with a very human touch.
We waited for a staff member to become available and then were treated exceptionally well.
The procedure seems to be for the Staff Member to take some details and then spend 10 minutes on the phone with the beeavement team reading the same details over to them - seems very labour intensive to me, but the process was thorough and the resultant funds will be transferred into th Executor account within 7-10 days

Regards

Tet

Bonniepurple

We found Lloyds were hopeless with my Mum - they sent off the wrong form so my co-executor and I had to in effect reopen the account in order to close the account down once probate was granted.  They couldn’t understand why we didn’t live together.  My co Executor that time was my uncle.

This time round with my Dad’s estate Lloyds contradicted everything they’d told me in the past, disagreed with what was on their website and gave my brother the runaround.  

We ended up opening a joint account with Starling as there was no way that we could arrange to be in the same bank branch at the same time to open up a traditional account.  My brother and I live 80 miles apart and I’m disabled, so access (and parking) was a worry.  With Starling, we had to open up individual accounts, then we used our phones when we were in the same room to confirm that we wanted to open the joint.  

onomatopoeia99

I tried to open one at Lloyds (who I bank with) but the person I spoke in branch to wanted my brother (the other executor) who also banks with Lloyds to come into the branch at the same time.  He lives 150 miles away, but they wouldn't accept him going into his local branch. I gave up.

In the end I decided not to bother with an executor account at all and just opened a savings account in my sole name online and am having money transferred there by the various financial institutions, then will empty it into my current account when I've collected everything and distribute.

[Deleted User]

Did you need to go into the branches? With my Dad's Lloyds account I just filled in the form on their website and the money was transferred two days later.

fluffig

My condolences.
And I'm glad to read that Santander were kind to you and had a human touch.

They certainly needed to improve. I struggle to put into words how absolutely dreadful they were to me as executor when dad died. I even had to send them his death certificate four times (the first three times I had Royal Mail Special Delivery proof of delivery, but they still mislaid each one).

tetrarch

Deleted_User said:

Did you need to go into the branches? With my Dad's Lloyds account I just filled in the form on their website and the money was transferred two days later.

It depends on the amount whether or nor probate is required.

We (naively) thought that going into branches would shorten the process and lead to not having too many probate copies out of our hands for too long

We saved ourselves maybe one trip, but overall a mixed bag

Regards

Tet

tetrarch

UPDATE

Two weeks on from our Branch-visting-expedition.

Yorkshire 

Called the bereavement help centre to get told that there was a delay and we should receive the funds in "7-10 days"

Nationwide

The inefficiency continues. The reply to the branch report was "posted on 13th-June". We have to wait for this and they need some wet-ink signatures to release anything

Santander

They were very honest, they are currently dealing with "2nd June" and our report was "7th June". Funds will be paid directly so it looks as though Santander will win the race

New Institution - NS&I

Online form filled out on 7th November, postal reply expected, nothing yet


Regards

Tet

handful

We are having similar issues with Nationwide releasing funds at the moment.Despite informing them 8 months ago about the death and after advising them about the grant of probate they are now being very obstructive and not releasing funds to our legal representative. All financial organisations seem to have one thing in common despite all of the consumer protection in place, resources are there for bringing business in but when it comes to the end of business for whatever reason then incompetence or maybe worse, deliberate blocking behaviour kicks in.

tetrarch

handful said:

We are having similar issues with Nationwide releasing funds at the moment.Despite informing them 8 months ago about the death and after advising them about the grant of probate they are now being very obstructive and not releasing funds to our legal representative. All financial organisations seem to have one thing in common despite all of the consumer protection in place, resources are there for bringing business in but when it comes to the end of business for whatever reason then incompetence or maybe worse, deliberate blocking behaviour kicks in.

Maybe I am being generous, but most things seem to to be to incompetence or lack of resources/productivity rather than any deliberate ploy to not return the funds

Regards

Tet

BooJewels

I have to admit, having dealt with several estates recently, I've not found getting money from banks to be problematic or even slow.  I have commented before in respect of pensions - the more money involved, the more hoops they make you jump through - so maybe banks are similar in this regard.  None of mine required Probate - so that may be a different process.

My aunt, who is the latest one, was with Barclays and being her Attorney with them was a nightmare at just about every stage - if something could go wrong, get lost in the post or some such, it did.  Yet once she passed, I advised them, filled in a form, signed something they sent me and had the money in the estate account exactly a month to the day after she died.  They said it would have been a few days quicker, but some of it was in an ISA, so that had to go elsewhere to be settled and a refund came in for her phone account, so they delayed to process that, they said it would be less work for me than rejecting it. And the amount was almost twice what they told me was their Probate threshold, but they didn't ask for it.

Santander were a couple of weeks, Halifax about three days in changing a joint account into just my own name.  NS&I took their sweet time, but even that wasn't as long as guessed it might have been.  Two months to the day from filling in their form.

tetrarch

UPDATE

Now Four weeks on from our Branch-visting-expedition.

Yorkshire - Still waiting

Branch visit 5th June - "should get cheque within 7-10days"
Follow-up call 19th June - "should get cheque within 7-10days"
Letter received on 26th June dated 18th - "We need ID and another signature"

I followed this up immediately with another call, subsequently sent email with required scanned ID and form with the reassurance that the funds would be sent "next day" - nothing so far


Nationwide - Still Waiting

w/c 19th June - The inefficiency continues. The reply to the branch report was "posted on 13th-June". We have to wait for this and they need some wet-ink signatures to release anything.

w/c 26 June - Forms finally received and sent back same day. This could have been done electronically in a fraction of the time

Santander - 17 Days

They were very honest, they are currently dealing with "2nd June" and our report was "7th June". Funds will be paid directly so it looks as though Santander will win the race

Funds received - 22nd June

New Institution - NS&I

20th June - Online form filled out on 7th June, postal reply expected, nothing yet
3rd July - Still nothing

Regards

Tet