What is the procedure with bank account upon death of spouse

Hi does anyone know the procedure if ones spouse dies - someone told us that you have to go immediately to the bank and get the account put in the remaining spouse name. if anyone has any info. I would appreciate this. We have to be aware of procedure here otherwise if the freeze the account how can we pay the essential bills water/electricity if the account is frozen.

Hello in theory you are correct! if you do they will freeze at least 50 % of all assets which could cause you problems I am not advising you to do anything illegal but sort everything out before you say anything to the bank as the last thing you want at a time like this is more problems, just take your time and get everything sorted out before making more problems for yourself with the bureaucracy of the banks inform them when you have everything in place to avoid problems for you or your family.

scubydoo wrote:Hello in theory you are correct! if you do they will freeze at least 50 % of all assets which could cause you problems I am not advising you to do anything illegal but sort everything out before you say anything to the bank as the last thing you want at a time like this is more problems, just take your time and get everything sorted out before making more problems for yourself with the bureaucracy of the banks inform them when you have everything in place to avoid problems for you or your family.

When we first came to Spain, I heard of a lady who lost her husband suddenly and without the help & advice of a good neighbour she could have been in financial trouble. If she had informed the bank immediately the account would have been frozen straight away but luckily she was advised as above and quickly 'sorted' things out first.

Hi This has come to light as a friends wife died. Our accounts are in joint names, if the remaining spouse goes to the bank and either takes out most of the money, they then inform the bank they want it in their name and transfer all DD (elec/water/suma)- wont they wonder why? and they might need the signature of the spouse. But if you take 99.9% of the money out tell the bank the spouse has died, at least theirs very little money in the account.
On another note: How will the bank know if one of the spouses have died unless you tell them ?
Sorry about all these questions but its something we have to be prepared for and informed our close friends.
Thanks Kay

The bank told a friend of mine, say nothing until you have opened an account in your own name, transfer the money over and then tell them, they of course know what has happened but won't do anything as you are entitled to your own bank account, the bank lady said it is a way round a difficult problem.

my mother passed away 2 years ago and had a joint account with her brother- she was in hospital when she passed away, the bank was notified straight away when the death certificate was issued. the result was the account was frozen the moment the death certificate was issued.
50% of the amount was transferred into a new account for her brother. As she did not have a Spanish will it has then taken me 2 years to close the account and transfer the amount into another account, whilst this was going on the bank carried on charging for the account.
My suggestion to all is the have a Spanish will - if she had then this would only have taken a month or so I am told.
Any payments set up in the account would continue to be paid until the account went to nil balance.

Many thanks to everyone for their information, much appreciated.

My friends husband died last week, they have a joint account I’m taking her to her bank next week to open an account and transfer most of the money into her account, I’m a bit apprehensive doing this , their account manager knows her husband is ill and does ask after him, so worried she’ll ask and then my friend would have to say he’s died if she lied wouldn’t she get into trouble.?

Anniep wrote:My friends husband died last week, they have a joint account I’m taking her to her bank next week to open an account and transfer most of the money into her account, I’m a bit apprehensive doing this , their account manager knows her husband is ill and does ask after him, so worried she’ll ask and then my friend would have to say he’s died if she lied wouldn’t she get into trouble.?

Can you not do it on line.
We have a joint account but we also have two separate accounts the back told us to transfer from one account to the other in case of a death.

She hasn’t got her own account and doesnt do online banking, her husband did everything, she really hasn’t got a clue, I wanted her to open an account the other week but she wouldn’t and unfortunately you can’t push people into doing something.