Money taken out of account

Katsu2025

My brother died.  I took death certificate into his bank to freeze account.  So estranged wife could not help herself.  bank account was in his name only.  Bank told me account was now frozen and that i would need to give ID. Estranged wife went into another branch showed passport and they allowed her to take out over 4.000 pounds. They said she was still married so can take money out.  He had liabilities that she knew about.  No letter of confirmation yet still going through court
please help  

FlorayG

If the bank account was in his name only she can't have done that. If it was a joint account, all the money in it now belongs to her. I think you need to ascertain if it was a sole or a joint account because NO bank will let a person not named on the account draw money from the account regardless of their relationship to the account holder.

eskbanker

Katsu2025 said:

My brother died.  I took death certificate into his bank to freeze account.  So estranged wife could not help herself.  bank account was in his name only.  Bank told me account was now frozen and that i would need to give ID. Estranged wife went into another branch showed passport and they allowed her to take out over 4.000 pounds. They said she was still married so can take money out.  He had liabilities that she knew about.  No letter of confirmation yet still going through court
please help  

Are the dates clear, i.e. was the withdrawal definitely after you'd been told by the bank that the account was frozen (and was anything documented in writing)?

Are you (and not her) defined as his executor, and to what extent are the bank aware of this?

What do you mean by "No letter of confirmation yet still going through court" - letter of confirmation of what, by whom and to whom?

Katsu2025

He died 19.12.24 she took money out on 6.1.25 The bank account was solely in his name as i had bank card and account papers.  Bank was told that he wanted me to be executor and that i was applying to the court (Scots) law As we couldnt find a will but now have. As his family his money was to pay off his debts nothing else.  His estranged wife of 14years went into another branch showed passport and took money. The branch i went into were saying the money has gone, we dont know how this happened. Then, she is next of kin so she can take it nothing they can do about it and didnt want to help.  Confirmation of his estate, you have to apply to court because house involved and needs to be sold  

Katsu2025

There was nothing documented in writing if his estranged wife was entitled to money after liabilities were paid then it would have been given to her but she withdrew all monies knowing he had debts to pay.  She also knew that i was his executor and his next of kin. she just wasnt happy about it all 

grumpy_codger

Katsu2025 said:

The bank account was solely in his name as i had bank card and account papers.  

This doesn't prove that the account wasn't jont. What papers do you have? Any recent statements with his only name on them?

 His estranged wife of 14years went into another branch showed passport and took money.

This makes no sense. My wife cannot go to a bank with her passport and take money from my sole account.

 The branch i went into were saying the money has gone, we dont know how this happened.

Well, it's their fault then. Complain and demand the money back.

Middle_of_the_Road

Katsu2025 said:

He died 19.12.24 she took money out on 6.1.25 The bank account was solely in his name as i had bank card and account papers.  Bank was told that he wanted me to be executor and that i was applying to the court (Scots) law As we couldnt find a will but now have. As his family his money was to pay off his debts nothing else.  His estranged wife of 14years went into another branch showed passport and took money. The branch i went into were saying the money has gone, we dont know how this happened. Then, she is next of kin so she can take it nothing they can do about it and didnt want to help.  Confirmation of his estate, you have to apply to court because house involved and needs to be sold  

If it is a sole account in his name, and they have given money to his wife ( estranged or not) they will have to explain their actions.
Ironic really, considering all the interrogation we have to endure when making genuine payments.

eskbanker

Katsu2025 said:

we couldnt find a will but now have. As his family his money was to pay off his debts nothing else.

I don't understand that - surely a will wouldn't simply specify that debts would be repaid without mentioning what happens to the residual assets?  In other words, to what extent is it demonstrable that the estranged wife isn't entitled to any of the money - was the will written prior to or after estrangement?

The bank would certainly seem to have questions to answer but the whole situation does sound messy and it doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility that legal action will be necessary to resolve it....

SiliconChip

Was the account frozen before the wife withdrew money from it? If so then it's a slam dunk case of bank error and they'll have to put the money back in the account.

You mention that a Will has been found, does that name you as executor?

Did your brother's assets exceed the debts? If not, and he knew that when drawing up the Will, there may have been no need to specify what happened to residual assets as there wouldn't have been any. In fact, if that is the case then the estate is technically insolvent so it might be better to step away if that's possible under Scots law (I don't know if intermeddling is a thing in Scotland).

FlorayG

I think it must have been a joint account. There's no way she could get money from it otherwise and a joint account can't be frozen if one of the account holders is still alive. OP you need to check THAT first with the bank; as I said earlier, if it WAS a joint account then the wife was perfectly within her rights to withdraw all the money

HillStreetBlues

IanManc said:

Katsu2025 said:

There was nothing documented in writing if his estranged wife was entitled to money after liabilities were paid then it would have been given to her but she withdrew all monies knowing he had debts to pay.  She also knew that i was his executor and his next of kin. she just wasnt happy about it all 

You are only his executor if you are appointed in the will as his executor. What does the will say?

If the woman was still married to your brother - estranged or not - then she is his next of kin, not you.

If you are actually the executor and you had informed the bank that you were, and after telling the bank that your brother had died they said the account was frozen and then they let the wife take out money, then you should make a formal complaint to the bank.

But you need to have been appointed in the will as the executor for you to have any cause to do this, or for you to be able to deal with his estate. If you haven't been appointed then whoever has been appointed to do it should be dealing with it ....... and if on the off chance that the will is so badly written that it doesn't appoint an executor then the wife should be doing everything as she is definitely the next of kin.

A person can name anyone to be next of kin so the brother certainly could name OP as their NoK.  NoK has no legal meaning, normally it's a person to contact in emergences.