Joint Bank Account With Executor

[penym]

My son and i have a joint bank account which i want to keep open so that he has an active account after my death. It is with Natwest. It is a current account with less than £3,000 in it and i never have cause to use it and neither does my son who lives and works overseas. Tha account has been in operation since he was a student. I was checking up on making it an online account on the phone but evidently i got one of their security questions wrong and i was told i would have to visit the local branch. I did so but there was no private area to discuss the matter and the assistsnt told me that i should consider moving the money in the account elsewhere. I was most unimpressed with the service as the woman was simply not interested in helping me.

Problem is do I need both son’s signature and mine to move most of the money out of the account or will i need his signature too...i assume I will. And if son visits UK can i make him a signatory on my main current account in Santander as he is not permanently resident in UK? It is highly useful for an executor to have access to a current account when a parent dies but i am worried that this maybe difficult to arrange.

Yes, i could go into the local branchesof these banks, but in my area of London visits to banks are akin to the 9th circle of hell and to be avoided at all costs.

Any advice would be appreciated.

TIA

penym

[Slarti]

With regards to the signatures, it depends on what you set up when you opened the account.

My wife and I have joint accounts that we were careful to set up as either signature, totally so that if anything happened to one of us the other could carry on paying the bills.

Larger sums are in either ISAs where they can't be joint names, or in 2 signature required accounts.

I think that for the 2 signature accounts, as we are both main executors for the other, proof of death and executor signatures would be required. But I may be wrong.

Slarti

[didds]

as slarti has mentioned you need to ascertain whether the account has single or dual signature requirements.

If single you can presumably deal with it all yourself.

If dual then there will presumably be some part of the process whereby you will both have to sign stuff. This could potentially be solved by post, but for obvious reasons send the totally unsigned paperwork to your son for his signature, then you sign last (happy to be told this would be wrong

I cannot believe there is nowhere private available to discuss financial transactions and accounts etc in a bank/BS. Perhaps arranging an appointment with the bank manager (which will mean one of his minions) may be a way forward?

Good luck.

didds

[PaulBullet]

Choose a bank with branches in both countries, if you son uses one of these then I would start there

HSBC is good for most of the world if not

Speak to a bank manager here and say what you want, ask if son can visit local branch to provide proof of ID etc.

Paul

[Lootman]

Not what you asked but I actually think that a joint account with your Executor (who is presumably also your beneficiary) is a useful thing to have. As you observe it could be very useful when you die, or before then if you become incapacitated.

And you could always transfer other monies to it later. In a perfect case, your entire wealth could be placed in that account, and then it would pass to your son immediately upon your death, without any need for probate.

It is something I am considering setting up with my children. So personally I would keep it.

[dionaeamuscipula]

Choose a bank with branches in both countries, if you son uses one of these then I would start there

HSBC is good for most of the world if not

Speak to a bank manager here and say what you want, ask if son can visit local branch to provide proof of ID etc.

Paul

One needs to be very careful of coverage. In the USA for example, HSBC's branch network is highly localised and much of the USA is thousands of miles from a branch.

DM

[genou]

Choose a bank with branches in both countries, if you son uses one of these then I would start there

HSBC is good for most of the world if not

Speak to a bank manager here and say what you want, ask if son can visit local branch to provide proof of ID etc.

Paul

I suspect this may be the main issue to set up a new account. Penym will find that she has her work cut out to find a bank that will open an account for a non-resident. The issues with the current bank ( please leave, to paraphrase ) may well have come from them discovering that Penym's son is now abroad.

[didds]

At the risk of side tracking, whilst I get the bit about opening an account with/for somebody living abroad, surely one can;t be expected to sever all ties with a bank account once one leaves the country? ie

lives in the UK
open bank account
uses bank account
moves abroad, potentially temporarily.

Should that mean one has to close one's account?

I used my First Direct account whilst abroad for about 6 years until returning. This was 25 years ago now admittedly. I also had accounts at the Co-op and Midland in that time although they weren't active.

My German bank account remained open while I was abroad for a couple of years (Australia and New Zealand ) and was used in abstentia as well.

didds

[genou]

Should that mean one has to close one's account?

didds

Down to the T&Cs on the account, I would think. Things have tightened up and made the banks much more wary. If you came within FATCA, I'd guess they'd close the a/c the moment they found out. Moving around in the EU ( so far ) maybe not so much.

[didds]

So when they close an account down - where do they send the money?

didds

[penym]

I tried to ring NatWest this am but the wait was at least 15 minutes! I think that it maybe best to transfer most of the money from our joint account into son's account in St Lucia as he will need some funds before probate is completed. I am becoming a signatory on one of his accounts there anyway. I will try to leave a small amount in NatWest and will brave a trip to the branch again. I looked at the last statement and the original branch when we set up the account in the 80s was in Bloomsbury near UCL and not my local branch so maybe I will go to Bloomsbury and see if the service is any better!

The glitch I encountered on the phone was that I could not recall one of their security questions! not surprising at my age!

Thanks to all who responded as it was most helpful. I am not about to expire. I just want to make things as easy as possible for my children when I do!

penym