My father passed away this year and I've been trying to sort out his estate. The bank (who was aware of his passing) continues to depositchecks into a joint account of my father.
When I presented the bank with my court letters of authority regarding his estate, they refused to allow me access to these accounts. They refused to even share with me how much money had be deposited into the account and still continue to deposit checks into this account, but refuse to allow the estate access to this information.
Is this legal? What do I do to resolve this issue?
Untitled
The estate is entitled to know the balance in the account and any interest earned but not paid as of the date of your father's death. Because the account was jointly owned, at his death the account's ownership was vested in the surviving joint owner, and not in your father's estate. That is the reason the bank is able to allow additional deposits and why it won't provide you information on the current status of the account.
If checks that have been deposited to the account since your father's death were payable to your father or his estate, you have a complaint with the current owner of the account, who should not have deposited those funds. They should have been given to you as the personal representative of the estate.
BankingQuestions.com is a free service made possible by the generous support of our advertisers. Advertisers are not responsible for site content. Please help us keep BankingQuestions.com FREE by supporting our advertisers. When you see an ad for a product or service you may have an interest in, click through to learn more.
Accounts
Article
Q&A
Podcast
Video
Blog
Discussions
PDF
Powerpoint
The estate is entitled to know the balance in the account and any interest earned but not paid as of the date of your father's death. Because the account was jointly owned, at his death the account's ownership was vested in the surviving joint owner, and not in your father's estate. That is the reason the bank is able to allow additional deposits and why it won't provide you information on the current status of the account.