Getting hold of deceased Grandma's bank statement

wyattjnr

Hello everyone, hopefully someone can give me some guidance of an issue we have with getting visibility of my grandmas bank statement.  My grandma passed away in 2021 and my mother and uncle were beneficiaries and executors of her will.  Until 2020 my mother was in control of my grandmas finances for paying the care home and bills through accessing her bank.  There was a POA in place.  My mum moved to Ireland to be with my sister in 2020 and eventually due to dementia into a care home in Ireland was not of sound mind to continue and my uncle took over the responsibility of handling the finances.  My Grandma passed in 2021 and my Mum passed in June 2024.  
Since my grandma passed, my sister and I have had no sight of the bank account and do not fully believe the statements our uncle have sent which show no transactions but just the bottom line of that is in the account are true.  Is there anyway that we are the executors of  my mums will that we can be granted access to my grandmas bank account so we can see all transactions?

p00hsticks

wyattjnr said:

 Is there anyway that we are the executors of  my mums will that we can be granted access to my grandmas bank account so we can see all transactions?

No, I don't believe there is. 

Zanderman

Sorry for your loss.  

You say you've not seen your grandmother's bank account statements since she died - but the account won't have existed since she died (or only for a short time). It would be frozen on her death and the assets distributed by the executors to the beneficiaries - your mum and your uncle. So there should not be any statements - for that account - since 2021. Is the account you're mentioning another account set up since her death to deal with her assets - an executor's account perhaps?

Being executors yourselves now, to your mother, won't give you rights to information about your grandmas's bank statements. Probate (if needed) will have been granted for the grandma's estate and her will executed. You might have access to those records (probate and a statement of how the will was executed) but that will just be the assets on death, not what happened beforehand. And what happened afterwards - which of course an executors account should show - is that what uncle is holding back on?

wyattjnr

I should have explained better.  The account was frozen in Sept 2021 when my grandmother passed, but there is an 18 month period prior where my mothers side (either herself or  my sister and I) have had no sight of the account and we believe there was transactions in and out of the account that my Uncle was involved in.  During that 18 month period he was the only person who could access the account.  So effectively we are having to believe that the figure is the 'correct one'.
Probate has only just been granted for my grandmothers estate so the money is ready to be distributed but its the actual figure we are querying.

Zanderman

wyattjnr said:

I should have explained better.  The account was frozen in Sept 2021 when my grandmother passed, but there is an 18 month period prior where my mothers side (either herself or  my sister and I) have had no sight of the account and we believe there was transactions in and out of the account that my Uncle was involved in.  During that 18 month period he was the only person who could access the account.  So effectively we are having to believe that the figure is the 'correct one'.
Probate has only just been granted for my grandmothers estate so the money is ready to be distributed but its the actual figure we are querying.

You don't have rights to that information - the 18 months before the account was frozen - just because you're executors for your mother.  You wouldn't even that right, technically, if you were executors for your grandmother, as it is assets at death you need to take into account, not what may have happened beforehand (unless it impacted inheritance tax).

Your grandmother's estate is what was in the account when she died, not what might have been in it beforehand. (Unless transactions beforehand altered inheritance tax liability of course, in which case it might matter to HMRC)

If you think your uncle mis-handled your grandmother's account as an attorney before her death that's a separate legal issue, not directly related to either death.  

Hoenir

wyattjnr said:

I should have explained better.  The account was frozen in Sept 2021 when my grandmother passed, but there is an 18 month period prior where my mothers side (either herself or  my sister and I) have had no sight of the account and we believe there was transactions in and out of the account that my Uncle was involved in.  During that 18 month period he was the only person who could access the account.  So effectively we are having to believe that the figure is the 'correct one'.
Probate has only just been granted for my grandmothers estate so the money is ready to be distributed but its the actual figure we are querying.

On death the account is frozen, be no transactions out of your late Grandmothers account.  Other than the transfer of the balance on closure of the account. This should be declared in the estate accounts prepared. 

35har1old

Zanderman said:

wyattjnr said:

I should have explained better.  The account was frozen in Sept 2021 when my grandmother passed, but there is an 18 month period prior where my mothers side (either herself or  my sister and I) have had no sight of the account and we believe there was transactions in and out of the account that my Uncle was involved in.  During that 18 month period he was the only person who could access the account.  So effectively we are having to believe that the figure is the 'correct one'.
Probate has only just been granted for my grandmothers estate so the money is ready to be distributed but its the actual figure we are querying.

You don't have rights to that information - the 18 months before the account was frozen - just because you're executors for your mother.  You wouldn't even that right, technically, if you were executors for your grandmother, as it is assets at death you need to take into account, not what may have happened beforehand (unless it impacted inheritance tax).

Your grandmother's estate is what was in the account when she died, not what might have been in it beforehand. (Unless transactions beforehand altered inheritance tax liability of course, in which case it might matter to HMRC)

If you think your uncle mis-handled your grandmother's account as an attorney before her death that's a separate legal issue, not directly related to either death.  

Do you think HMRC would be involved due to being resident in Ireland?

Zanderman

35har1old said:

Zanderman said:

wyattjnr said:

I should have explained better.  The account was frozen in Sept 2021 when my grandmother passed, but there is an 18 month period prior where my mothers side (either herself or  my sister and I) have had no sight of the account and we believe there was transactions in and out of the account that my Uncle was involved in.  During that 18 month period he was the only person who could access the account.  So effectively we are having to believe that the figure is the 'correct one'.
Probate has only just been granted for my grandmothers estate so the money is ready to be distributed but its the actual figure we are querying.

You don't have rights to that information - the 18 months before the account was frozen - just because you're executors for your mother.  You wouldn't even that right, technically, if you were executors for your grandmother, as it is assets at death you need to take into account, not what may have happened beforehand (unless it impacted inheritance tax).

Your grandmother's estate is what was in the account when she died, not what might have been in it beforehand. (Unless transactions beforehand altered inheritance tax liability of course, in which case it might matter to HMRC)

If you think your uncle mis-handled your grandmother's account as an attorney before her death that's a separate legal issue, not directly related to either death.  

Do you think HMRC would be involved due to being resident in Ireland?

Well that depends on whether the OP is referring to the Irish Republic or to Northern Ireland.

But nit-picking aside, it would be a matter for the tax authority. Wherever it is.