If I died...

[Miss E]

At the moment we have all our money in my name because I earn less than DH and it means that overall we pay less tax on our investment earnings. Our credit cards are also in my name. It is just our day to day transaction account that we both get paid into that is in both our names.

My concern is if something was to happen to me would DH legally be allowed to access that money and continue to use the credit cards? He is the sole beneficiary of my will and nominated as the executor, so there is no doubt that he would have the money eventually.

But what about in the days/weeks/months immediately after. Could he use it to pay funeral expenses and cover living costs while the estate was being finalised?

Be great if someone 'in the know' could tell me the legal implications of this.

TIA

[Tuesday's Child]

We were able to access Mum's money to pay funeral expenses. When I went it to sign the forms notifying the bank of her death they wrote a cheque then and there. (My brother and I are joint beneficiaries and executors).

Not sure about the bank accounts/credit cards etc, but I would expect he'd still have access to the account that is in both of your names.

[Lenny]

I just recently had this conversation because we just moved our savings over into my name for the same reason. DH has access to my internet banking passwords etc so he would be able to transfer funds into our everyday account, and, according to the guy i was dealing with, this is perfectly OK. It's not like it gets frozen straight away or anything. Credit cards are in joint names though.

I'm not actually in the know, but this was what was explained to me.

[Miss E]

I just recently had this conversation because we just moved our savings over into my name for the same reason. DH has access to my internet banking passwords etc so he would be able to transfer funds into our everyday account, and, according to the guy i was dealing with, this is perfectly OK. It's not like it gets frozen straight away or anything. Credit cards are in joint names though.

We're in pretty much the same situation by the sounds of things. Our joint account is literally just a transaction account, money comes in each week and is then diverted to other accounts. There is no way there would be enough in there to sustain them for a week, let alone longer... The actual Credit Card account is in my name, but DH is an additional card holder on it. I didn't know that we could set up a credit card account in both names, but might have to look into it.

But our banking set up is very similar. There is more than enough money accessible through my internet banking login (which DH has). It would just mean that he would be moving money out of an account that is just in my name, to an account that is in both of our names and I'm not sure if that is legal...

[melbel]

You can sign enduring power of attorneys for each other (which you should do in case if you haven't already) which will give him access. Also if he is executor of your will he can gain access for funeral related stuff etc.....

[LuluHB]

Just to clarify, an EPA is only valid while both parties are alive, so if you were to pass away it becomes useless. It would really come down to the individual you dealt with at the bank as to whether or not they took the sensible road, as opposed to the "letter of the law" road.

Having said that, in this day of electronic everything, you would still find it pretty easy to access funds. One of the executor's jobs is to notify banks of the account holder being deceased, so until they're told by your executor they wouldn't know. Once the account holder passes away the account should be frozen until probate is granted. If an account is in joint names, then the survivor can continue to use the account as normal.

[Frangipani]

Any single name accounts get stopped as soon as the Bank is notified. Money can be released for funeral expenses when the funeral invoice is presented but that's usually it. The other bills are a case by case basis (usually manages decision). Any power of attorney's or banks authority to operate are invalid after death....its then all to be dealt through the estate.

If the credit card is just in the one persons name...as most usually are...though there might be some financial institutions out there that do joint ones - but from what I've seen most of the big banks are just under the one name with the other as an additional cardholder. Then the credit card would also be stopped upon notification and eventually closed once they have recovered the debt (from estate funds unless you have credit card insurances which can take care of it). Therefore the additional cardholder would have to do an application of their own.

Of course some people who have access to cards and internet tend to continue to access the funds before the bank is notified but don't believe that is legal (but have no idea the legal repercussions are or how they come about...guess it would depend who reported it as theft or maybe even fraud).

Bec sent this on her Samsung using Tapatalk