Executors Bank Account - where? ! How to deal with estate if cannot get this simple account.

spreadsheeterapple

Nightmare trying to open an Executors Bank Account, hardly any banks do them and/or make them so difficult to open that it becomes impossible.

Barclays require both executors to attend in branch together; not possible if in different counties 500 miles apart. They have also closed branches in our local towns, meaning you'd have to travel to a city to open & administer it.

Lloyds group; you cannot open an executors account unless deceased or executor already banked there. Again, local branches closed, and too far for one executor to travel to open (elderly).

HSBC will allow account opening with only one executor attending in branch, the other can present themselves with their ID separately in their own local branch, or Hub. However some Hubs are only staffed once a week. Also, having booked an account opening appointment and waited a week to get to see someone in branch, now discover they will not do a bank mandate where signing instructions are 'both to sign'. So they refused to open an account as that is exactly what we wanted, both-to-sign all payments as neither trust the other whatsoever. You might be right that the deceased was ensuring one last torture be administered from the grave in appointing their 2 offspring to do the work of executors and who haven't been on speaking terms for decades.

NatWest was the last best hope, but a comedy farce ensued with staff asking for certain documents which I provided, only to be told by other staff that it wasn't good enough and/or I shouldn't have been asked by the original staff, and then same again the other way round. I've deleted the comedy as it wasn't appreciated as such by some readers, who had a go at me. Don't do that, it's rude.

We haven't 'chosen' not to have full driving licence for photo-ID, I don't drive. Some readers are blaming me for not having photo-ID. We don't travel abroad, never needed a passport. Don't have a smartphone, no wish for expense. These things are not legally enforceable upon us, we cannot be prosecuted for not having them, but some readers seem delighted to blame us for being elderly and without them. Please stop doing that, just don't comment.

It's too difficult to open an executors account. What to do instead; this estate needs collecting in, debts paying, distributions to beneficiaries. It cannot just be forgotten, and us be sent away from branch all the time. Cheques payable to 'the executors of etc' can only be paid into an account in that name, so opening a personal account will not work.

subjecttocontract

Why do you need an Executors bank account ?

Can you not just open a joint account, arrange signatures as required and deal with the money/estate in that way ?

I'm asking because I've done it a few times and never had any special bank account to deal with the finance.

kipsterno1

Have you discussed with the other executor the possibility of them having 'power reserved?' This might help make the whole process smoother if they live that far away. I did this with my sibling as they lived some distance away and at the time weren't very well. I still discussed everything with them and included them in decision making but documents only needed my signature.

FabFifty

Similar to subjecttocontract - no need for Executors Account when I dealt with an estate earlier this year. Joint account opened online with other Executor. Both could see what was coming & going so kept life very easy.

p00hsticks

Sorry. I didn't read the full mail (too long).

From personal experience, the only time I've needed an executors account is when the solicitor handling the conveyancing of the deceased's house wanted to pay the funds into one. Otherwise a personal account will do just fine - on one occasion I cleared down and used an existing account of mine, on another, as I bank with Natwest I could easily set up a select account and then later converted it to an executors account by, as you say, taking the will, probate grant etc into a branch - we never added the second executors name to it.

Daniel54

The wall of text is pretty hard to work through - maybe you could split into digestible paragraphs.Maybe try to edit out the rant.

if you and your co- executor are on good terms,there is no reason why one of you cannot open a new account in their own name and then keep the other fully informed regarding inflows and outflows.

Your national insurance number is the reference for your regular state pension payments.I have no idea why you needed to find a WFA payment to establish you NINO

spreadsheeterapple

reply all (!)

• no, we cannot just open a joint account precisely for the reason that personal accounts cannot have signing instructions as 'all to sign' as banks won't do that.
• it must be both-to-sign as neither trust the other, and the other is a scheming perpetual liar I wouldn't let them have a ha'penny to play board game with and expect to get it back. Has also started to query the will, not wanting to share with a charity which is named for a large sum & feels it should have been theirs. They didn't query before we applied for probate, only now a month after it was granted do they make any comment; they are querying the final Will & all previous Wills with solicitor citing impaired mental state without evidence except to state the deceased would never have done that.
• Executors cannot do Power Reserved or Renounce the Role, cannot step down voluntarily, after Probate Granted, as they have then been appointed & confirmed as Executors. They can only be removed by applying to the court; I'm not at the stage yet of wanting to press for that, am expecting the other to stop challenging Will once they've researched its huge costs, which could more than wipe out their current share and possibly be more than the actual total estate after paying debts. It's a relatively small estate.
• no I won't edit it, in my day textbooks were 800 pages and we had several for each module, so I don't know when people became unable to read one page/less than one. Forums usually have multiple rants, I thought mine is a Comedy. or Farce. If you read it in that vein it's quite entertaining.
• one big problem I faced with account opening is bank expectation of photo-ID, which is impossible for people who've never had a passport or new-type photo driving licence, plus expectation of smartphone; don't have. There are alternative processes to use other documents to prove ID, but some of them as I discovered & outlined in OP are not issued to OAPs or are not issued at all/don't exist. I was asked for my State Pension Letter, submitted it, but was then told oh it doesn't have the NI Number so can't accept it; DWP said they wouldn't issue me another letter and they don't put NI Number on anyway. That's just one example of Bank asking for documents which are not issued/don't exist.
• the 2nd biggest problem is banks demanding executors accounts be opened in person in branch, but they have closed too many it's now mega journeys to one, often just cities left open. Can't cycle that far, no public transport connections, unless you want to make it a full-day.

I've exhausted the main high street banks, plus First Direct, Monzo, Nationwide, Santander, TSB, don't do executors accounts at all. The first 2 would have been out anyway as cannot open without smartphone & photo-ID.

Anywhere else?

Keep_pedalling

When you say

• no I won't edit it, in my day textbooks were 800 pages and we had several for each module, so I don't know when people became unable to read one page/less than one. Forums usually have multiple rants, I thought mine is a Comedy. or Farce. If you read it in that vein it's quite entertaining.

It’s not the length that is the problem it’s the lack of paragraphs and spacing (as per your bullet points in the last post). so we are faced with a wall of text that would not have been a problem the 800 page documents you refer too.

If you want people to read and respond to your questions please make it easy to read, some of us will just ignore text walls so you reduce the chances of getting an appropriate response if you don’t make good use of the carriage return key.

Savvy_Sue

My sibling used bus pass as one form of photo ID in this situation (no passport, paper driving licence only). Fortunately still working so work ID card was accepted.

I presume you're not into online banking? I think we were able to set that up with 2 to approve on NatWest.

spreadsheeterapple

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82053727#Comment_82053727

You don't need to read any of that NatWest section unless for entertainment; cannot edit anyway nor can I delete the whole thing. Stop trying to tell me off, I'm old, tired, and recently bereaved, gimmee a break.

The question posed is 'how to deal with the estate if we cannot get this 'simple' account, executors account'. I find it daft hardly any banks will open one, but we have cheques payable to 'the exors of etc' which cannot go into an account which isn't in the name of 'the exors of etc', therefore all the suggestions of simply opening a personal account make no sense. Cheques are crossed payee only, banks refuse them into any other name on the account.

bobster2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82053802#Comment_82053802

Aside from the joint signature issue - it is usually possible to administer an estate without a special executors account.

For cheques - you may have to ask the issuer to reissue them with a different name. E.g. if the deceased had a current account even if it's been frozen that bank may accept cheques for deposit in the name of the deceased. Or some organisations will reissue the cheque payable to the personal representative / executor.

I've administered 2 estates without a special executor account - and managed to deposit all cheques.