How to find bank accounts opened for my daughter

Local_Lass

When my daughter was born, nearly 23 years ago, a close family friend of my parents said that they would like to open a savings account in her name and pay into it on birthdays, Christmas and special occasions.  They asked me a couple of times to borrow her birth certificate to open new accounts as they had maxed the one they’d been paying into, therefore I believe there are several accounts but I don’t know how many.  I have no idea what kind of accounts these were or how much was in them, but trusted these people completely and have absolutely no doubt that this was completely genuine.

Over the years we managed to lose touch and I recently heard from a family member who also knew them that they heard that they have both now passed away, though have no information about this.  My daughter and I have moved house several times since those accounts would have been opened so it’s unlikely we would have been able to be contacted by the bank/building society should there have been paperwork found upon their passing.

Is there any way my daughter can find out if those bank accounts still exist?  The only info she would have would be her full name, DOB and address at the time plus the names of the couple and their address at the time.  She has no other information which would be relevant.

We’d very much appreciate any help you can offer.

Flugelhorn

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert or at least you would have had to give specific consent - though maybe that is wrong. 

xylophone

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert

No -  for example, I can remember a Virgin account that permitted an adult to save for a child and I think Halifax had something similar.

https://www.gretel.co.uk/

might be a possibility.

marcia_

 I only know of this 

https://www.mylostaccount.org.uk/

PRAISETHESUN

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-lost-assets-free/

Might be worth looking into?

Otherwise could try submitting DSAR requests to each bank you suspect might be the home of these accounts and see what comes back. If you list old addresses and her NI number, it might help to link everything together.

Flugelhorn

xylophone said:

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert

No -  for example, I can remember a Virgin account that permitted an adult to save for a child and I think Halifax had something similar.

https://www.gretel.co.uk/

might be a possibility.

fair enough - suppose other option would be to ask whoever is administering the estate (though could be a tricky thing to do) 

eskbanker

Flugelhorn said:

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert or at least you would have had to give specific consent - though maybe that is wrong. 

That limitation applies for junior ISAs rather than childrens' accounts in general, but probably worth bearing in mind that the accounts concerned were opened 23 years ago, when the pre-GFC regulatory regime was rather different....

Flugelhorn

eskbanker said:

Flugelhorn said:

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert or at least you would have had to give specific consent - though maybe that is wrong. 

That limitation applies for junior ISAs rather than childrens' accounts in general, but probably worth bearing in mind that the accounts concerned were opened 23 years ago, when the pre-GFC regulatory regime was rather different....

was just thinking it was a different world then though sounds like more accounts have been opened since then. 

If there was interest accruing on these, wouldn't HMRC have known ? Not that they would tell you but seemed odd having where you are liable to pay tax but you don't know where they are - suppose it does happen sometimes

wmb194

eskbanker said:

Flugelhorn said:

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert or at least you would have had to give specific consent - though maybe that is wrong. 

That limitation applies for junior ISAs rather than childrens' accounts in general, but probably worth bearing in mind that the accounts concerned were opened 23 years ago, when the pre-GFC regulatory regime was rather different....

Not a problem in a post-GFC world either e.g., Barclays, Lloyds/Halifax.

wmb194

Flugelhorn said:

eskbanker said:

Flugelhorn said:

I thought that only the parents could open accounts for children even with the birth cert or at least you would have had to give specific consent - though maybe that is wrong. 

That limitation applies for junior ISAs rather than childrens' accounts in general, but probably worth bearing in mind that the accounts concerned were opened 23 years ago, when the pre-GFC regulatory regime was rather different....

was just thinking it was a different world then though sounds like more accounts have been opened since then. 

If there was interest accruing on these, wouldn't HMRC have known ? Not that they would tell you but seemed odd having where you are liable to pay tax but you don't know where they are - suppose it does happen sometimes

The problem is that not all children's accounts automatically convert into an account in the child's name e.g., Barclays is clear that even past 18 it isn't automatically the child's account and it's up to the trustee to give the money to the child or have the account transferred to them.

I'm not sure what you'd have to do here with a deceased trustee: as you mentioned earlier, have the executor deal with it? Has the executor already done something with it? Of course, just because accounts were opened long ago it doesn't mean the weren't  emptied and closed long ago.




https://www.barclays.co.uk/content/dam/documents/personal/savings/childrens-additional-terms.pdf

Local_Lass

Thank you for all your answers, they are much appreciated.  Much of the problem lies in the fact that everyone drifted apart years ago and I’m not sure about the circumstances of their passing.  Trying to track down an executor seems ghoulish and mercenary!  

My daughter just tried a search on My Lost Account and without knowing the bank and branch it wouldn’t let her proceed.