Probate: Bank won't release funds without a lawyer?

ph265

Hi there, 

I work for a charity and have been administrating a legacy we were kindly left. (So much work!)

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

Our trusted solicitor has said that this is unnecessary and won't do it. 

Does anyone have any advice? Feel caught in the middle. It's 'only' £20k so we have to be very cautious of the charity's money. 

Piers 

Flugelhorn

what do they want the solicitor to do? you have probate - therefore you can have the funds

dunstonh

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

Instructing a solicitor to do what?

The executor of the estate is the one who releases the money.  Not the charity that is going to benefit.    So, why is the charity getting involved with the estate and not leaving it to the executor?       This could be why the bank wants a solicitor involved.

MEM62

ph265 said:

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

To do what?  What is the banks policy in this situation.  

xylophone

Is the charity the exor of the deceased?

If not, then the exor should be arranging to pay the charity the legacy.

ph265

MEM62MEM62 said:

ph265 said:

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

To do what?  What is the banks policy in this situation.  

Thanks. It's a long story to be honest. But I have been granted probate to ensure the funds go to the primary beneficiary, which is the charity.

So I as the named executor with a grant of probate am being refused the funds without following a vague 'policy' to instruct a solicitor to administrate the funds. 

The financial company is Prepaid Financial Services and were used by the deceased's local council to manage her funds when she got sick. 

Thank you for your interest.

ph265

MEM62 said:

ph265 said:

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

To do what?  What is the banks policy in this situation.  

Yes my thoughts exactly. That's what our solicitor said as well. 

The company say: 'it's our policy as it is such a large sum of money this is in place to safeguard the funds. Any person administrating an account with us if the account holds over £10,000 must instruct a solicitor.'

(The amount is roughly £20k by the way.)

I've asked for the terms the deceased signed up to (or those acting on her behalf). But haven't received anything yet. 

It's puzzling. Was interested to see if this was normal with banks or financial services? 

ph265

xylophone said:

Is the charity the exor of the deceased?

If not, then the exor should be arranging to pay the charity the legacy.

Thank you for response. See my other comments responses for more context. But in short, I am the named administrator on the grant of probate. So am the only named executor. 

t1redmonkey

ph265 said:

MEM62 said:

ph265 said:

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

To do what?  What is the banks policy in this situation.  

Yes my thoughts exactly. That's what our solicitor said as well. 

The company say: 'it's our policy as it is such a large sum of money this is in place to safeguard the funds. Any person administrating an account with us if the account holds over £10,000 must instruct a solicitor.'

(The amount is roughly £20k by the way.)

I've asked for the terms the deceased signed up to (or those acting on her behalf). But haven't received anything yet. 

It's puzzling. Was interested to see if this was normal with banks or financial services? 

So I've actually worked in the 'Estates' department of a financial services firm before.  The only vaguely similar policy we had to this, was that if the value of the account with us was over £10k (I think it was £10k anyway, maybe it was £20k), then we had to have sight of either the original GoP or a solicitor certified GoP.  Have you definitely provided them with this?

poseidon1

Googled the company concerned, they are not a bank but a specialist issuer of prepaid cash cards in the local authority sector. Judging from the universally negative reviews of their service, seems their very poor security protocols have enabled scamming and fraudulent access to customer monies. 

I suspect this overkill in the OP case of insisting on a solicitor intermediary, is an over reaction to problems they are facing in the wider aspect of safeguarding client funds.

ph265

t1redmonkey said:

ph265 said:

MEM62 said:

ph265 said:

We have grant of probate but the bank holding her funds won't release the money without us instructing a solicitor. 

To do what?  What is the banks policy in this situation.  

Yes my thoughts exactly. That's what our solicitor said as well. 

The company say: 'it's our policy as it is such a large sum of money this is in place to safeguard the funds. Any person administrating an account with us if the account holds over £10,000 must instruct a solicitor.'

(The amount is roughly £20k by the way.)

I've asked for the terms the deceased signed up to (or those acting on her behalf). But haven't received anything yet. 

It's puzzling. Was interested to see if this was normal with banks or financial services? 

So I've actually worked in the 'Estates' department of a financial services firm before.  The only vaguely similar policy we had to this, was that if the value of the account with us was over £10k (I think it was £10k anyway, maybe it was £20k), then we had to have sight of either the original GoP or a solicitor certified GoP.  Have you definitely provided them with this?

Thank you very much for your response. That's very helpful to hear. 

Yes I've provided them a Grant of Probate which names me explicitly as the only executor. 

This I thought provided me the right to act in deceased's stead. But they're not playing ball. 

Prepaid Financial Services are a very odd company. No idea why a local authority was using them.