ISA QUESTION

[lovelytoes]

my brothers best friend died suddenly last year.he had 10k in an ISA.
His mum has just been to the bank to withdraw the money and the bank have taken 7.5k as they said under the term and conditions you incur penalties for closing it within 12 months. Is this true?
The man has died how can this be classd as a penalty.

That sounds completely wrong! Who is it with & what sort of ISA it? I would ask them for a copy of the terms & conditions too.

That sounds ridiculous. Which bank?

I would like to know which bank too. Sometimes the staff don't know that their own terms and conditions change when dealing with probate.

My family had a really bad experience trying to take a will out of a safety deposit box at Lloyds when my Grandfather died. The staff at the bank even went so far as to open the will . My sister had power of attorney and had deposited the will, but the staff would not let us take it out. It turns out that their own terms and conditions actually had specific rules for deaths and, on production of a death certificate, anyone could release the will.

In this instant I am surprised that the mother was not forewarned of the penalty for the withdrawal.

That sounds totally wrong, usually it's interest which is lost in penalties not the initial.investment.

Was it a cash ISA or stocks and share? I think a return visit to the bank in question is needed.

Are those figures right? They took 7.5k of a 10k ISA? That's 75% - I can understand there being penalties, but normally they are only reduced interest rates. These shouldn't apply in the case of a death though.

I can't help but I regularly read the 'Ask Jessica' column in the Saturday and Sunday Telegraph newspaper - she deals with this sort of thing all the time. I think the other newspapers probably have people that do the same sort of thing.

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/jessicainvestigates/

The only downside is that if she does investigate and get a result then she is going to want to write about it in her column - some people don't mind, some do. however she is obviously doing this stuff in order to help people and to write her column for the paper - she's not just doing it for the fun of it iyswim. But if you read some of the other cases she has looked into, it's not like she is printing your name and address, just initials and a county or area of the country, and the outline of the case so that it might help others that find themselves in the same predicament.

But if the amount they have taken from the bond are correct then it sounds like absolutely the sort of thing that she likes to get her teeth into and help with! And strangely enough as she is writing from a national newspaper, the banks involved tend to be much more helpful to her!