Bills after death

Magic_Sister

I have quite a few things to sort out but my immediate one is this. I share a home with my disabled daughter, who gets UC with the disability top up.
All household bills go out of my bank account. I cannot put my daughter in a joint acc with me as it might look like she earns as I work full time. Some of her disability is mental health and neurodivergence and she will need a lot of support if and when something happens to me. In order to ensure that rent/ bills etc all continue to be paid (ie my acc not frozen on my death) I am thinking of asking my son if he would go in a joint acc with me. This way he could ensure all bills etc continue to be paid. He works, PAYE, is not in receipt of any benefits, and is married but no children. Are there any pitfalls to this idea that I should consider please?

lincroft1710

How will the account be funded when you pass? Would your daughter be capable of living on her own when you pass? You would be, in effect, making your son responsible for his sister's financial affairs, would he want to do this?

I am sure this is a situation which many have faced, so it would be good to get some opinions from similarly affected MSE members

elsien

You also haven’t said if your daughter has capacity around her finances or not. Where is her money going at the moment - does she have her own account?
It’s the difference between she’s not going to be able to manage bills at all or she could manage some education and support.

And as above, whether she can afford to run and maintain the property if you are no longer able to help her with. And that’s not just talking after you die it’s if you need to go fund your own care because that will remove some of your income from being able to pay for the house bills anyway. Unless you have a huge amount of money behind you already.

Also technically, although a lot of people slide this under the radar, if you became unwell and lost capacity yourself the joint account could be frozen if the bank became aware of that fact. Simply because you no longer in the position to monitor what is happening with the money yourself.

And even if things go as your plan and the money does stay in the joint account, the bills would still need to be moved to your daughter’s name and she would need to take responsibility for them.

Keep_pedalling

You really should make a lasting power of attorney so that you son can handle you finances should through accident or illness you lose the mental capacity to do it yourself. In case of your death you should make sure you have an appropriate will in place. It is likely that the will should create a trust for your daughter and for that you need a solicitor, preferably a STEP qualified one.

sheramber

You say your daughter needs some support .

What are the plans for the future when you are no Longer around to take care of all the bills etc and support your daughter?

Magic_Sister

ok thanks all. As I said I have a lot of planning that I need to do. This has consumed me for years now. Thank you to all who have answered, but I simply want to know if there are any implications for my son on making my bank joint so that even only temporarily the bills are paid whilst my life insurance pays out, and my daughters future is stabilised.
Being the sole parent of an adult disabled child is exceedingly stressful, and exacerbated by the problems as to when you die. I am obviously putting things in place as far as I can, and this is just an answer that needs at the moment.
Thanks.

Savvy_Sue

There are alternatives to making it a joint account, which I think include adding your son as a signatory but the money remains yours. A friend did this when he was going to be abroad for a while, leaving a tenant in his house, and it meant I could sort any repairs etc.

poseidon1

Unless you are also proposing to place all your savings accounts in joint names with your son, I am not sure how joining him purely on your current account achieves much.

Surely when you pass, all your different sources of income will cease ( pensions, earnings etc), so there will be no new cash to keep the account topped up. It would then be incumbent on your son to replenish the account from his own resources to ensure direct debits and standing orders can be met. However, if that is what you anticipate would occur, then that's fair enough and joint arrangement provides a degree of continuity until utilities can be transfered to your daughters name.

Of course the biggest outgoing would be rent for the property, so you need to have confidence your son and his brother have the resources to meet that cost pending settlement of your estate.

However if you are also proposing your savings account be held jointly with your son, then the potential problems with that is he is deemed entitled to 50% of any interest earned thereon and taxed on that basis whether he receives it or not.

Furthermore, if your Will purports to gift your savings accounts on trust for your daughter, that gift is thrawted by reason of your son acquiring automatic legal ownership of said savings accounts by survivorship.

You mention life insurance, which I assume is a personal permanent policy rather than work related death in service benefits. If so have you thought to write the policy in trust, with your son as trustee to avoid the payout being held up by probate? The circumstances you outlined suggests this would be a prudent measure to ensure funds flow to the children sooner rather than later.

Magic_Sister

Thank you. Food for thought. Yes the Life Insurance is in Trust.

Keep_pedalling

Sorry to repeat myself, but a joint account is simply not an adequate solution for you situation. Far better to appoint your son as your financial LPA (if he is willing to take on that role) and making sure your will takes your daughter’s situation into account.

Do you know what sort of trust your life insurance policy creates?

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82021020#Comment_82021020

For the record this is known as Third Party Access or Third Party Mandate. Most larger banks offer it, each with slightly different rules.