Deceased's Joint Bank Account with Ex wife

A question about : Deceased's Joint Bank Account with Ex wife

I have been appointed executor of a friends Estate. He is divorced and has no contact with the ex-wife. His will states he wishes to leave his children a nominal amount with the remainder going to his current partner, who he had been with for a number of years.

He has had no contact with the ex wife since the divorce, over 5years ago but we have discovered he never changed the mandate on their joint bank account and it is still in joint names. Knowing he had no time for the ex wife and that he did not wish her to inherit anything, should and can I, as executor, prevent the ex-wife getting her hands on the money in that account.

She is currently not aware of the existence of the account, ie that it was never changed to a sole name. He was been the sole user of that account since their divorce.

As executor of his estate I want to do what he would have wanted and know that he would not want the ex to receive those funds.

The amount in the account has no effect on IHT.

The banks are adamant that it goes to the ex, full stop no exceptions., and I understand that this is the basic legal position but I am wondering it there are situations such as this that the court would over rule that decision.

How do I prevent the automatic transfer of the funds by the bank to the ex-wife, while applying to the courts. I want them to freeze it while I get some legal advice and maybe apply to the court, but The bank aren't willing to help they want to just strike his name of, but that just seems wrong to me... anyone any ideas?

Best answers:

• Agree with g6jns.
  Legally the money does not belong to the estate and is not therefore within the remit of the executor.
  You have identified one of the downsides of a joint account. That is both parties to a joint account own the credit balance and equally both would be equally liable should the account be overdrawn. As regards the ex her own credit rating would have been impacted by the joint account.
  You may be fortunate in persuading the ex to place the funds into the estate but there is no legal reason why she should, indeed it already is her money.
• This may not be the case,
  not all accounts in two names are held on a joint tenancy basis.
  HMRC document this and there are plenty of court cases that have determined "joint accounts" to be held on a tenants in common bases 100:0 split
  The financial settlement in the divorce may well have broken the joint tenancy.
  Then again it may not.
• (GetMore4Less - can you give citations for any of the cases you refer to?)
  The presumption is that the account now belongs to the ex wife. It may be worth checking the order made in the divorce proceedings. If it explicitly states that the wife is to cooperate to transfer the account to the husband's sole name then you may be able to argue that a trust in favour of the husband was created. However, given the delay and the fact that the husband apparently didn't do anything to deal with this (he could not have closed the account without her cooperation, but he could have frozen it, or emptied it and set up a new account)
  how much is in the account? If the Divorce Order provides for it to be transferred to the husband, then it is worth you, as the executor, writing to the wife and asking that she cooperate to close the account and pay the balance to the estate.
  Even if it doesn't, you can still contact her and ask that she do this. If she won't, then you will have to consider whether there is any evidence to support an argument that the account holders held as trustees for the husband, and whether the amount involved justifies trying to make a formal legal claim on behalf of the estate.
  I suspect that you would struggle to prove that she is not entitled