If I dropped dead tomorrow, could DH access my bank accounts?

[FlamingoAndJohn]

We haven’t made wills, and I know we should.
I have more in savings than DH as I had a small inheritance a few years ago.

It occurred to me today that if I were to drop dead DH might need that money but as it’s in my name alone I don’t know if he would be allowed to access it.

Anyone know?

@TimeWastingButFun

Ditto what others have said about wills. Why on earth would you not make a will??

We’ve never got round to it. Not having DC means there hasn’t really been a push to do it.

Agree with all of the above. Make a will. If you don't have family, and just want to leave it to each other it is a very quick process and will save hours and hours of stress and heartache. I know of someone whose husband died without leaving a will and her banks were far less understanding than some of those mentioned above. She was in real trouble.

You can buy/download a do-it-yourself will for £20. I had one as a single person, when I was faffing about trying to decide when to get one done properly. It was legal and straightforward to do, but I had one done by a solicitor when I got married, to make sure it was all OK.

If you haven't got DCs or other complications, then making a will is super-simple. You can do it online and it will take an hour or so.

Our planning is quite complex because I have a DSD and there's a lot of years between her and DS, but even that only took one solicitor's visit and a couple of hours of thinking/talking.

Omg I was thinking about this today.

Just to say, having a will won't mean he would have instant access to your accounts either! If you have over £10,000 if in assets in your sole name he would need to apply for a grant - either a grant of probate (if you had a will) or grant of letters of administration which basically confirms him as NOK & sole beneficiary. Once the grant is issued he would send to the bank and they would then release funds to him. Either way this would take at least a month. The only way he would get instant access would be if funds were held in an account in joint names.

@WhatWouldDominicDo

Why don't you put it in a joint account?

Would this mean your DH could access the money without issue? Our savings and current accounts are joint and would want DH to access them as the money belongs to both of us.

Yes, joint assets (including money in bank accounts) pass to survivor automatically and can be accessed instantly. Bank will then attend to changing details to survivors sole name.

Wannabebetter beat me to it. It doesn't matter whether there's a will or not (in England), he will not have access to your accounts until he's been through probate/administration. Having a will will not speed this up.

When my husband died I was expecting to lose the broadband/mobile service at any minute for non payment. I was easily spending three hours a day on the phone sorting things out and losing that would had been unthinkeable.

I now have a joint account with my son. It pays all the household bills and in the event of my sudden death he would be able to see what's going out rather than living in ignorance as I did. As it's a joint account it will immediately become his and the bank won't put a stop on payments.

That’s a good point about the bills. At the moment I handle all the bills.

I am retired, but it was still a struggle to get my DH to make a will. He obviously thought that making a will is some indication of impending death!
We eventually both wrote wills with the aid of a solicitor ( which is useful only because they know the correct terminology to use)

Surely just stick it in a joint account that he agrees not to spend from unless you to die? It's still your money just with an easy way for him to access it.

Btw when you do the wills, dont be in too much of a rush to name additional executors, because they then may have to be involved. After dh died the last thing his dad wanted was lots of admin as his mum has dementia. Talk to the solicitor but I would say have each other as executors with another one only if you both die.

A joint account for household bills to be paid out of is a good idea. You can still keep your own separate accounts, but at least with a joint one, the bills can still be paid until probate is sorted out. Also good to have utility bills etc in joint names as they'll often only speak to the person named on the bill!

Could you make the account into a joint account but in name only, so he agrees not to set up passwords etc for himself on there or use/look at it. But if you died he would be able to access the account. He could do the same the other way around.

@CMOTDibbler

I'm dealing with my parents estate at the moment. You can get the bank to pay for funeral cost out of the account, but thats it. If theres no will, then the whole process is more complex, and time consuming. Make a will. Put provision in there to leave everything to him, and if he predeceases you, leave it to the dogs home (or the charities you like, or friends, or whatever you fancy), but it will be a lot easier to sort out if you do.

Not necessarily. It depends on the bank. When I went in to close my father’s accounts at the Halifax, on production of the death certificate they transferred all his cash assets over to me while I sat there. It was around £48,000. Their limit without having to obtain probate is £50,000.

Just formalise it and get wills. DP and I don't have much family and don't have joint accounts. The solicitor was really helpful drawing up really simple wills, with each other as executor, I think they are called Mirror Wills. Do it sooner rather than later

Could you not get a joint acc but tell him not access it? We have a joint acc for Bill's etc, I have a card for it which I use at tesco etc but dh doesn't have a card. If he wanted to he could go online and transfer money out of it but he never does

I used to pay the bills out of an account solely in my name but when we got married I wanted DH to add his name to the account but he wasn't keen (issues with ex wife and bank accounts) As I explained, if I die the account is stopped (I worked in a bank so I know this is right) and therefore all dd's and standing orders are stopped. I asked if he wanted to arrange fresh payment details for everything whilst arranging a funeral and grieving for me, considering he's not necessarily aware of all service providers? He's on the account now.
We have several separate accounts but when we are older they will all be made joint, tho either of us will not necessarily be accessing them, purely for the ease of accessing them if the other one dies.
On an entirely separate matter, get power of attorney now. BUT be aware, once you die the POA is no longer applicable, i.e. you can't use that to access funds. Can you tell I've been there, done that?

When my DM died and my dad was calling round his friends to tell them, a recently widowed friend advised him not to tell the bank or car insurance until he had got enough money in his own name and his own car insurance. Dad thought that was sneaky so didn't do it and then had issues with not being able to insure himself on their car which was in mum's name and had previously only had a policy in her name with her as main driver. Also they only had a joint account which he then couldn't use. It made the first few weeks far more difficult arguing with the car insurance, worrying about not having car insurance etc and having to open a new bank account and worrying about direct debits coming out of the old joint one. He was the only beneficiary of her will as well.

When DH died I was able to access his bank account (savings) after providing proof that I was the executor (letter of administration) plus the death certificate. I also showed my marriage certificate. I then had the account transferred into an ISA in my name at the same building society. Our other accounts were joint apart from one with the Halifax which had a small amount of money in which he had set up years before. The Halifax transferred that to me without the letter of administration as all our other affairs with the bank were joint.

My DH died without a will and it was easy to get money from his bank accounts, and his pension, and his wages. He didn’t have enough for us to need probate, all I had to do was provide a marriage certificate and a death certificate. Everyone was very helpful.

Please please please make a will!

Also it is a good idea to get power of attorney for each other so you can access banks etc if one is taken poorly

It’s not something I knew anything about however my mum collapsed suddenly aged 60 with a bleed to the brain, she never regained consciousness and we had to fight to get access to things as she was self employed and we needed to pay her bills. We know have to wait 8 weeks for probate to come through to sort anything further. The stress and upset it has caused has been massive, along with losing her as well.

If she had made a will, we would have been able to sort easier!

Op, you also need to sort out power of attorney. If you had an accident or something medical which left you incapable of making decisions, your husband couldn’t access your savings. It may be that your home needed adapting or something similar. Court of protection orders are costly and take months, I know from dealing with my dad. It can be done at the same time as a will but only comes into force when needed.

We also had a joint account, the bank just took his name off and it became an account in my name only. No direct debits or anything were stopped.

Get a really good safe and keep an envelope of money in there for this situation. I have £3500 in my safe, along with a "death" envelope will all my passwords and insurance info and everything someone might need; if something happens to me then it can be accessed and there isnt any need to wait for legal processes to be followed since no one but my parent's know it is there!