Spanish Bank Account

[Misky]

My father-in-law died in May. We (his widow and the family) know he had a bank account in Spain, and we know which bank it was and the account number. We would like to find out what the balance is in the account, to see if it's worth going through the process of closing it properly. There has been no need of a Grant of Letters of Administration for his UK estate, and it seems that closing the Spanish bank account will be costly. We don't want to spend more on closing it than there is in it. He spent some time before is death shredding all the financial information he could find. Barclays in the UK have been great. Initial enquiries of the Spanish Bank say they can't tell me (fair enough). Has anyone on here dealt with anything like this? It's just this one bit of information that we need help with - is it worth my mother-in-law contacting them or will she receive the same response? Personal experience here would be helpful. Thank you.

[barry1010]

I don't have personal experience of this but my sister has.
She didn't know her husband still had a Spanish bank account when he died (they had moved back to the UK) until the annual statement was sent to him some months after his death.
The balance was a little over 2k. She jumped through hoops trying to close the account and get the money transferred to her UK bank account but gave up when she discovered the costs involved and the stress wasn't worth it. She is fluent in Spanish and thought she could deal with everything herself. This was not the case and she would have had to hire a notary.

Maybe your family will be lucky enough to receive a statement if the bank hasn't closed the account.

[Misky]

Thanks for your reply Barry. Unfortunately (something else we have only now found out), they hadn't told anyone of their changes of address since the account was opened, and there have been several! I have asked mother-in-law to keep an eye out for any post from Spain, so fingers crossed.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Do they know he has died?

[fiction-factory]

Who is the executor, Misky?
The executor could start by sending the death certificate plus a copy any will naming the executor, together with proof that he/she is that executor.

[Misky]

Hi, yes, I have sent the Death Certificate. There is no Will in UK or Spain, and there has been no need of a Grant of Letters of Administration. I know that if we do close the account, we will need such a Grant, with Apostille attached to everything, and this is why we would like to find out the balance in the account. If there's 2€ in it, we don't want to spend money on Probate Registry and Apostille fees. I wondered if they would tell the widow the balance without the Grant, etc.?

[barry1010]

It is worth a try, Misky.

[Misky]

Yes Barry, I will try and get her to do it. That's part of what I was trying to avoid, if anyone said they had tried and it couldn't be done. Thanks to everyone for their replies.

[woofgang]

I had a similar problem with an account in the USA. I explained to the bank in question how much their requirements would cost and asked if they could simply tell me whether the outlay would be worth it and happily they felt able to give me that yes/no information.

[Hymie]

Many years ago something similar happen when my step-father died, leaving an account in Spain.

I wrote on behalf of my mother, explaining the situation and to my surprise the bank transferred the funds to her account, even without much supporting documentary evidence.

I suspect the reason the bank did this was that they had some information on file of my parent’s UK address, and therefore were reasonably sure that paying the money into the UK bank account (with a holder matching this address and surname) was not an attempt at fraud.

[Misky1]

Wooflgang and Hymie - I don't think we'll be as lucky as either of you!