How long for bank to release money?

[WalterHWhite]

I wonder if anyone can throw some light on this for me please?

My brother and I have just been sent the grant of probate. I rang Lloyd’s bereavement team to ask what to do next. She wasn’t happy to speak to me as it was my brother who rang them first a few months ago (even though I am named as an executor in the will of which they have a copy) but she asked me some questions and explained.

She told us to go to the branch with a letter signed by us both to say that we would like the money in my mother’s account to be paid into - ‘whatever account we wanted. We would then administer the estate. I asked why it wouldn’t just go into the executor account and she said it could but it was up to us as we wanted the executor account but we needn’t have opened one.

I then wanted to ask something else but didn’t realise that it was a call centre and people can be anywhere in the country. Spoke to someone new who told me to go into the bank with the grant of probate, this would be scanned and end up being picked up by the bereavement team at some point and that it would take up to 25 days to be in the executor account.

I must say Lloyds bank have been awful throughout this process which I won’t go into as this is already very long.

A friend of mine deals with probate and two of her clients (who don’t bank with Lloyds) have taken the grant into the bank and just had the money transferred immediately.

Sorry for the length of the post but I’m a bit concerned that they are not giving us the correct information and was hoping someone could tell me whether this is the usual way that banks deal with probate.

Thanks

Anyone? I have to go to the bank later!

We had ours handled by a solicitor . Think it took 24 hours but that was Barclays. It might be different for each bank?

Thanks for replying. It seems that it’s every other bank except Lloyds!

I've just been through this with HSBC - took them 2 weeks from when probate was sent to them until I received the funds. It did seem like a long time.

That gives me a bit of hope that this normal @edwinbear. Thank you

Natwest took a few days, they told me it could be 10 working days though

At least you have a branch near you! I'm in exactly the same position as you with another bank are they are equally crap at confirming the workflow for this and my nearest branch is over an hours drive away. It used to be much more straightforward with an executor account (this bank dont create them). I dont have online access to DFs account either so just have to keep checking mine after the transfer.

Branch staff at NatWest (DF’s bank) were great. Accounts were frozen once we told them of the death, but once I took the probate grant in it tooK just a few days for them to transfer all the balances to my current account at Nationwide, with the written agreement of my DB as co-executor. I then moved it into an new interest-bearing account with Nationwide, again in my name. Over the next few months I transferred amounts into my current account to pay bills on DF’s house while we waited for it to sell. We’re nearly there now 😊. To wind up I’ll close the interest-bearing account so I know how much interest was made on DF’s cash, then I’ll do the final divi up with DB.

@WalterHWhite can I ask how long it took in the end? Just had the same conversation with Lloyds and that's to transfer to an Executor account with Lloyds!

That was the same as us. They took it right to the 25 days. Apparently the Grant of Probate gets sent to the ‘back office’ who then send it to someone else, who then send it somewhere else and then it gets released. They really didn’t make it easy. I know that other banks can transfer almost immediately so their system seems really strange. How long have you waited so far?

We've literally just sent the Grant of Probate via the branch and I was told 25 working days plus additional 4 days for CHAPS payment. It's absolutely unbelievable- we've confirmed ID to open the account, supplied the will, death
certificate and now the Grant of Probate. Ironically Scottish Widows were chasing us for updates - part of the same group just not similar levels of efficiency!

Did you chase up during the process? And did they pay interest on the money during that time?

It’s so frustrating I know. I didn’t have any faith in them at all. I kept thinking it would get lost somewhere!

I did contact them after about two weeks. It’s a call centre which is nationwide so all she was able to tell me was what the department had done before from notes on her screen. Honestly, just wait. I just put it out of my mind because I was getting so cross but they won’t budge. That’s their system and that’s it. As for interest, they did pay interest up until the date the account was transferred but whether it’s correct I haven’t got the patience to go through it. I was just glad to never have to deal with them again. You could be lucky and it’s less than 25 days. When I checked, I rang the Bereavement centre and used the ref number they give you at the start.

Oh and yes ours was the same - Lloyds current account (for 50 plus years) into and executor account recently opened. Madness

DH and BIL were executors last year and had to deal with our deceased relative's bank. They went in person though, and everything was done quickly and smoothly.

It wasn't Lloyds though. This lot sounds as though they are being deliberately obstructive to say the least. They are certainly not showing even the slightest care or concern for the bereaved family.

It is pretty poor. Every other bank we have dealt with have a two week turnaround- I'd have expected better from a national high street bank.