Ignoramus
Footballguy
Thanks. This is good info.It's tough to give you a full answer without a little more information (and I'm not a T&E) guy. But if your FIL dies and has an account on which his wife is not a co-owner (i.e. its not a joint tenancy account), then that account becomes a part of his estate. Which means the account would go through probate and be devised according to his will or by the state probate laws if he died intestate.Seems like as good a place as any to ask this.
In Texas, my FIL recently passed away and is survived by his wife. Evidently he had one bank account that did not have both of their names on it, just his. The bank is not wanting to release anything to his wife, even account information, unless she provides Letters of Testementary. This seems silly to me. Lawyer says that filing all of this will run about two racks.
Does this sound reasonable? What happens when someone doesn't have the money for that, does the bank just get to keep the money?
It might seem silly, but some spouses deliberately keep separate accounts and might want those assets to pass down different ways. I'd want to know if the 2K is to handle the entire probate proceeding, or if it's just to send something to the bank.