Closing a Deceased Relative’s Irish Bank Account From Abroad

Bank and credit union accounts are the Irish assets most often left behind by people who died abroad, and the ones most often inherited by people abroad from a parent who stayed. They are also where the first contact with Irish procedure usually happens: a letter to the branch, a reply from a deceased-customer department, and a list of requirements that includes something called a grant. This article explains what Irish institutions need before they release a deceased customer’s money, how the amount decides whether a grant is involved, what happens to accounts that were forgotten for years, and how all of it is done from England, America or anywhere else without a visit to the branch.

The First Letter: Notifying the Institution

Every Irish bank, credit union and An Post has a deceased-customer process. The first step is to notify them of the death and ask for a date-of-death balance and a statement of their requirements. They will freeze the account, stop standing orders, and reply with their list, which always starts with a certified death certificate and proof of who you are. They will also state their threshold: the balance below which they will release funds without a grant, on a signed indemnity. The notification and the request for the balance are the start of the asset schedule on which the rest of the estate depends; see documents for an Irish grant when you live abroad.

Below the Limit: Release Without a Grant

Irish institutions have long released modest balances on a death certificate and an indemnity, without requiring a grant. The limits are set by each institution, vary between them, are reviewed from time to time, and in recent years have commonly sat around the €20,000 mark for the banks, with credit unions and An Post applying their own rules. The indemnity is a form signed by the person claiming the money, promising to repay it if someone with a better claim appears. For a small account this route is quick and can be completed from abroad by post. Credit unions have an additional feature: a member can nominate a person to receive the account on death, up to a statutory limit, and a valid nomination passes the money outside the estate altogether. The detail of the small-holding procedures, including prize bonds and State Savings, is in credit union accounts, prize bonds and small holdings.

Above the Limit: The Grant

Above its threshold, an institution will release only to the personal representative holding an Irish grant of representation. No foreign grant substitutes, which is the point at which families abroad discover the rule described in why Ireland won’t reseal your foreign grant. If the deceased lived in Ireland, the Irish grant is the only grant in any event. The application runs from abroad through an Irish solicitor, and where the applicant and a non-resident beneficiary are both outside Ireland the solicitor is a legal requirement rather than a convenience; see do I need an Irish solicitor for probate? Once the grant issues, the bank releases the balance to the solicitor’s client account, from which it is distributed.

Joint Accounts

An account in the joint names of the deceased and someone else, typically a child who helped with bills, is released by the bank to the surviving holder in most cases. Whether the surviving holder is entitled to keep the money is a different question. Irish law asks what was intended when the account was opened: an account meant to pass to the survivor does so, while an account opened for convenience may belong to the estate. In a family spread across several countries, the sibling in Ireland who held the joint account and the siblings abroad who did not can see this very differently, and it is a recurring source of estate disputes. The law and the presumptions are set out in joint bank accounts on death and the practice page on joint accounts and lifetime transfers.

Dormant Accounts and Forgotten Money

Many diaspora enquiries begin with a memory rather than a statement: a parent once mentioned an account in a branch in Cavan, and nobody has seen a letter from it in twenty years. Irish law requires accounts with no customer-initiated transaction for fifteen years to be transferred to the Dormant Accounts Fund, which is used for public purposes, but the owner’s entitlement is preserved. The institution keeps the record, and the estate can reclaim the balance at any time by applying to the institution with proof of death and entitlement, and with a grant where the amount requires one. Banks that have merged or left the Irish market have transferred their deceased-customer records to successor institutions, so an account at a bank that no longer exists is usually traceable. The practical approach is a written enquiry to each institution the family can name, with the deceased’s details and any old account numbers, which we send as part of building the asset schedule.

The Money Leaving Ireland

Once released, the funds sit in the solicitor’s client account until distribution. International transfers to beneficiaries in the UK, the US or Australia are routine, and each beneficiary supplies their account details and identification. Before anything leaves, the estate’s Irish obligations have to be discharged, and the Revenue Statement of Affairs has to have been filed and any questions arising from it dealt with. We do not advise on tax; whether a beneficiary abroad has any Irish or home-country tax to deal with is a matter for their accountant, and the paperwork from the Irish administration is what that accountant will need.