Any clever mums up this morning who are able to give some advice on Executing a will?

[MillieMummy]

DP is executor of his mother's will. Mother was married to DP's step-father and held at least two joint accounts with step-father at the time she died.

As executor DP's understanding is that at the time his mother died half of what was in the joint bank accounts is part of the 'estate'; step fathers interpretation is that as the joint bank account holder everything in the account is automatically his. Can anyone advise who is right please.

At the end of the day this is an amicable situation, the issue is not about DP grabbing for what he thinks is his, and DP is not going to fall out with his step father over this, but DP is in the process of getting probate etc and is not sure whether the 'assets' in the bank account should be included or not.

Thanks

Bumping

Half of anything held in joint names is part of the deceased's estate.

What does the mothers will say about her bank accounts.

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Death/Preparation/DG_10029468

according to this government website:

Money in joint accounts

The deceased person may have held money with another person in a joint bank or building society account. Normally this means that the surviving joint owner automatically owns the money. The money does not form part of the deceased person's estate for the purpose of administration and therefore does not need to be dealt with by the executor or administrator. However, a deceased's person's share in joint property is treated as part of their estate for inheritance tax purposes, both on death and on gifts made during their lifetime.

None of the joint bank accounts are mentioned in the will, we aren't even sure how many there are.

One of you should take the death cert into the bank, and see what their procedure is with the bank accounts.

I know about the bank stuff (not a lawyer but ex-banker).

Your step-fil is right.

Anything held in a joint deposit account is automatically transferred over to the other account holder. Your step-fil will need to take the death cert to the bank to do this. Or he can leave it in joint names if he prefers (personally I find this a bit weird but I've seen it several times before and it can be a great comfort to the bereaved) but he should notify the bank of the death.

Any unsecured loans held jointly will become the responsibility of the survivor and so are also excluded from the estate.

The exception to this is property. You'll find the probate sections of directgov.org.uk very useful at explaining it all.

Forgot to say there's another exception - where an account is held in trust.

If that applies to any accounts, eg accounts held for grandchildren let me know and I'll explain more.