Keeping or closing accounts

subjecttocontract

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099164#Comment_82099164

I would suspect that is an impossible task. Many people will close accounts leaving no evidence that they ever had one.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099273#Comment_82099273

Theoretically an executor should take all reasonable steps to ascertain whether any IHT is potentially payable, and there will be some sort of declaration to that effect, but I don't believe that there's any actual obligation to reconstruct someone's entire financial history for the previous seven years, so in more practical terms it's all about establishing how/when/where/to whom any relevant gifting would have occurred.

EssexExile

Don't forget that the vast majority of us will not pay inheritance tax.

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099164#Comment_82099164

It's been over 10years now so memory will have lost bits but I just don't remember us doing that. I wasn't the executor, my mother & uncle were I think.

My mother wasn't up to the task really (I don't mean that in a criticising sense) so I ended up doing a lot of the work. His finances were taken on face value - as in all accounts on the day he died, final balances.

mta999

https://cunningtons.co.uk/duties-of-executor/

Talks about gvt clampdown ..

"it is also recommended that you obtain and review 7 years’ of bank statements for all accounts and make enquiries with the bank about any payments over £250 which are either unreferenced or you suspect might have been a gift."

By way it is even worse than that -theoretically you are supposed to get financial records for the whole of the deceased life to see if any gifts have been made that would be a 'gift with reservation'. For example 30 years ago giving 50k away for daughter to buy a holiday home but having use of that holiday home as well!

subjecttocontract

I often close accounts when I have no further use for them. The upside is it keeps my accounts tidy and I may qualify for a future switch bonus. The downside is I might miss a good offer to existing account holders......which is exactly what happened with Halifax, I closed the account and was not able to open the 8% reg saver.

B0bbyEwing

I'm not sure I could provide a full account of my own 7yrs worth of accounts never mind someone else's.

Current & savings accounts have been opened & closed all over the place. I just couldn't do it.

GeoffTF

It is a good point about inheritance tax. You do not get off the hook if you do not have an IHT liability. You still have to prove that is not as a result of gifts that are liable for IHT. I have good electronic records, with bank statements going back more than 20 years, but proving that I did not make a gift with reservation 50 years ago would be tricky. My executor would not have access to my electronic records. Perhaps I should change that.

I try to close accounts that I am no longer using. I would not like someone to hack into them and use them for money laundering. It is not easy to close some of them.

SevenOfNine

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82101335#Comment_82101335

We've wrapped up 2 estates in the past 4 years, both under IHT (1 left £273k after everything settled, the other £240k), no request for anything other than what we plonked on the required probate forms. No 'gift' checking was requested & none was given.

subjecttocontract

Its an impossible task if the information isn't available. Perhaps it's a 'grey area' and it's possible to make a gift, then close the account, destroy all docs and leave no evidence for executors.