Grant of Probate and Release of bank funds

Olly78

I opened Executor Accounts at Lloyds Bank shortly after my mother's death. The account, with balances, was blocked pending receipt of the grant of probate. To my surprise, HMRC handled the IHT within 3 Weeks and Probate took only 2 Weeks. I contacted Lloyds Bank and instantly forwarded them the Grant of probate. I was told by them that it would at worst take 25 days to grant me access to the Executor accounts; this would enable me to pay off my mother's creditors. The relative efficiency of HMRC and Family Courts seem to shine when compared to the lack of speed and attention provided by Lloyds bank to what appears to be largely a mechanical task to resetting access to an executor account. Is 25 days reasonable or is there some underlying benefit to the Bank holding onto funds for this period?

Keep_pedalling

I have never heard of an executors account being blocked. The deceased person’s accounts yes but an executor account is simple there to take in estate money as it becomes available.

Olly78

The Executor account was created to hold my mother's assets with funds credited from small balances held at other banks, hence the blockage. A further point of clarification, 25 days are in fact 25 working days so I have now been told!

Keep_pedalling

Olly78 said:

The Executor account was created to hold my mother's assets with funds credited from small balances held at other banks, hence the blockage. A further point of clarification, 25 days are in fact 25 working days so I have now been told!

I still don’t see why the blockage, it is not your mother’s account it is the executors. 

HappyHarry

From experience, to create an executors account Lloyds have a system where the executors open a current account, then they convert this account to an executors account. 

The account must have a zero balance at the point of conversion.

The final stage to convert is submitting the grant of probate to Lloyds. This sits in an internal queue with Lloyds until somebody picks it up, checks it is ok and then converts the account.

25 days seems a very long time - it was far quicker when I went through the process.

Have you spoken to Lloyds bereavement team at all - they might be able to help?

numbersrule

I opened an executors account with Lloyds for my late Uncle.  I remember that Lloyds seemed reluctant to a degree.  It seemed to me that they had some sort of policy to discourage requests for executors accounts.  I was able to open an executors account in the end but it was based on Lloyds 'basic' current account.  The impression I got generally was that Lloyds were kind of saying ' what are you bothering with this for? '.

Newly_retired

As my late husband banked with LLoyds, and I also have an account with them which is not my main account, I opened a new account with them for the transfer of estate funds. I did not call it an executor account. Their bereavement team were very helpful andthere were no delays.

Hoenir

Olly78 said:

Is 25 days reasonable or is there some underlying benefit to the Bank holding onto funds for this period?

You did say worst case scenario is 25 days. There's a specialist team that deals with executor accounts. When I used them found them to be extremely helpfull and supportive. Unfortunately it's a question of how busy they are at the time. With work sitting in a queue to be processed. No one is sitting around twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do.  Estate funds are covered by an exemption for 6 months and not restricted to the £85,000 limit. While there might not be any interest paid. The bank will be paying a levy to the FSCS insuring these balances held. 

Philip_P

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81539222#Comment_81539222

What about tax on any interest? Did hmrc accept that the interest, if any, belonged to the deceased estate and not you?

Skint_yet_Again

We have an executor account with Nat west which they started as a normal account and then converted with zero balance. Once they converted it we could pay in funds but not withdraw until probate was provided.

I hand delivered probate in branch and the block on withdrawal was removed the same day. I am already a customer with them and the executor account now appears on my online banking app so I can pay bills & the pecuniary beneficiaries & solicitor deposit for sale of house by bank transfer. The account is in joint name with other executor but I am the main one dealing with the account. There is no interest

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889307#Comment_81889307

It's good to hear that NatWest still offer this option - we used it many years ago and it was relatively painless. (I did spend nearly an hour in branch one day, on the phone to some team or another, ironing out a wrinkle or two.)