I am posting this in both Legal Matters & Money Matters. Have namechanged, but am sure some people will recognise me - I've done so just to go some way to protect personal identity.
My DH died a few months ago. Obviously on his death all of his assets were frozen, so I could not touch any of his money (bank account in his name only) other than pay funeral expenses. Probate was granted a couple of months ago and all is fine. But something has been really bugging me.
DH had a credit card with his bank and had about £2k owing on it. Initially the bank wrote to me to say they thought he had insurance on it and that when I had Grant of Probate I should send them a copy and the balance would be paid. A month or so later (before probate was granted), they wrote again to say sorry, they made a mistake. There was no insurance and therefore they had transferred the money from his (otherwise frozen) bank account to pay it.
Now, thus far I have done nothing about it. But the more I think about it, the more pissed off I am. How come the bank could touch my late husband's assets but I couldn't? Is this really legal? Why, if all assets are frozen on death, aren't all debts also frozen? There seems to be a real imbalance here. If it is legal, is it really ethical? Thankfully I am in an ok financial position, but supposing I wasn't? Does paying off a credit card really take precedence over everything else? Over his widow and his small children? To me this stinks of banks doing everything to get their money, bugger everyone else in their wake. I don't like it and something is going to change - it has to.
Perhaps this is more of a rant from me but I would be really grateful to hear from any legal or financial experts and understand how the bank could do this.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give 