Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:05:23 +0000
From: GSV Three Minds in a Can 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Another limit to be aware of ..

Most readers here are probably aware of the £35k limit for compensation 
if your bank goes bust (£70k for joint accounts). However I just tripped 
over another one, after my father died - most institutions have a £15k 
limit on what they will release without grant of probate papers. Not a 
problem for joint accounts, but for ISAs and TOISAs 'joint' is not an 
option.

Getting probate is £90+ and a trip to the nearest probate interview 
centre (which is probably somewhere not at all convenient). or you can 
get a solicitor to do it, and pay several % of the value of the estate. 
Or you can arrange to have <15k in each ISA and avoid the whole hassle.

The £15k is the number the institution picks, based probably on the 
insurance they carry against releasing the funds to the wrong person.

They'll try and tell you it's a legal requirement, but it isn't. It's 
also been fixed at £15k for a while, at last in the case of HBOS, and 
their flexibility is zero, their 'jobsworth' co-efficient approaching 
infinity.

Just a thought.

-- 
GSV   Three Minds in a Can
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