upon death - what happens to your accounts

The bank needs the death certificate. They don't peruse the obits

If the account is a transfer on death, pay on death or joint account then the surviving person presents the death certificate and the transfer occurs - it could be as soon as instantly or maybe in weeks time.

If the account is governed by a will or trust the executor/trustee needs to present the death certificate and the will or trust and or other documents that establishes they they are they are the will or trustee.

After death the other signatories can continue writing checks.

After the bank finds out about the death direct deposits will be blocked and ones made out to the decedent will be returned to the sender

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Several states also require a state inheritance tax waiver.

Description:

A will shouldn't be required, because it is none of the financial institution's concern how the estate's assets are distributed. Rather, the financial institution cares only who the executor/administrator is, and will require a statement from the state verifying this person's status as executor/administrator. (This in turn means that the will has been probated to establish the executor.) In effect, the executor/administrator stands in for the deceased.

If by trust you are thinking about something like an IRA (where the financial institution is a trustee or custodian), then the financial institution is acting as trustee in accordance with the terms of the trust. Specifically, the trust distributes the assets to the beneficiaries (or estate if no beneficiaries named). The beneficiaries need to present a death certificate and possibly inheritance tax waiver. That's it. If the estate is the beneficiary, then the executor/administrator needs certification from the state, as with a will.

But if the financial institution is not the trustee for the trust, the fact that the trust is supposed to pay out because of a death is of no concern to the financial institution. The institution simply deals with the trustee. So long as the trustee is not the deceased, I don't believe any documentation is required by the financial institution - nothing has changed in the relationship between trustee and financial institution. On the other hand, if it is the trustee who has died, then it's a little hard for the trustee to provide documents :-).

Here's TRP's brokerage transfer form, with very clear directions on all these situations (owner died, trustee died, JTWROS, TOD). I found TRP to be the most helpful of any institution I dealt with under these circumstances.

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big snip

institutions where she held accounts naming a trust as a beneficiary all wanted to see the death certificate (none kept it,) and the trust to see that I was indeed the trustee. The nosiest was the bank who sent a copy of the trust to their head office, the least nosiest was Smith Barney whose local office had kept a copy of the trust when the account was opened.

After I remarried and my new wife retitled her house from her trust to hers and my house the local tax assessor wanted to see my trust and the marriage certificate to preserve the proposition 13 assessment (transfers to spouses do not generate a re-assessment.)

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tnx for the various comments on what happens afterwards. I've run the simple path after my mother died a few years ago.

This was more about..... the financial institutions finding out, if you don't walk in carrying the certificate & red flag the account.

Basically - after a person dies, there is really nothing in the "system" that would pro-actively search this out and flag the account. Therefore - until you personally raise the issue, the accounts just keep rolling along until maybe end of year tax time, or a statement address gets bounced.

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(I was referring to a trust being the owner, not the beneficiary - focusing on the owner's death.)

That's a different situation than the one I was describing - I misunderstood the situation you were thinking of. Any beneficiary is going to have to provide adequate proof of identity. As you said, for an estate or trust, the executor/trustee is going to have to provide proof that they are indeed the executor or trustee. For an executor, that's a declaration by the state and not the will itself; for a trust that is the trust itself. The difference between the two is that the will is probated, and that means the state and not the will determines who the true executor is, while the trust may not require state validation.

Mark Freeland snipped-for-privacy@nyc.rr.com

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The accounts cant be accessed without the deceased signature.

As part of probate, the executor will take death certificates to banks to liquidate the accounts according to the Will or State Intestate Law (no Will) The executor will search the deceased papers and collect mail for a period of time to ascertain accounts. Overlooking some accounts isnt rare. After several inactive years the account revert to the state. Dateline TV ran a couple of pieces where they tracked down heirs. Sometimes entreprenuers will also track for a cut. The executor also has pay any taxes on an account's interest and deferred holdings.

Unauthorised access could be a crime.

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There might be some situation where the institution pulls a credit report. Such as if there is a line of credit attached to any of the accounts, and they do a periodic check (e.g. annually) to make sure that the customer's situation is still OK.

And credit bureaus use the official Social Security Death Index, enabling them to place a note on the file that the person appears to be deceased.