Money in a Thai Bank in case of death

[Sea Traveller]

Let’s say as for example I have 1 million baht on an account at Bangkok bank in my name only of which 800.000 baht would be for Thai Visa or Extension purposes.  I have a relationship partner that is a Thai and a Swedish citizen and no children’s together. But I have two adult children’s that are only Swedish citizens from a previous marriage.

 

Case 1: From this let’s say I die and I want that the money should go to my relationship partner. What do I need to already do now so my relationship partner could just go to Bangkok bank office and collect the money? A last will testament in Thailand only or something I need also to do at Bangkok bank or more?

 

Case 2: Both me and my relationship partner would die in a car accident. In this situation I want of course it should be easy for my children’s as in Sweden to get the money as on Bangkok bank. What kind of documents and things do I need to do as for make it easy for they to get the money? And must one or both my adult children’s thus travel to Thailand to visit a Bangkok bank office as to get the money?

[ubonjoe]

You need a last will and testament for both cases.

[Sea Traveller]

10 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

 

You need a last will and testament for both cases.

Thanks! I have already made such in Sweden and I plan to do accordingly in Thailand when I might change to use Non Immigrant "O" Visa and thus place a lot more money at my Bangkok bank accounts than I have currently. As to get money out from the accounts on for example Bangkok Bank...Must persons as get the money thus be in Thailand and visit a Bangkok office? 

 

[jacko45k]

I would expect so. Based on a will a court order must be obtained for the bank to release the funds. Hence a lawyer needs to be engaged and court case required... Whether you can assign someone in Thailand Power of Attorney to handle this you need to seek knowledgeable advice on. 

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Based on a will a court order must be obtained for the bank to release the funds.

I have read before that is not needed here in most cases if a will was done here. All that was needed was the will and a death certificate.

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I have read before that is not needed here in most cases if a will was done here. All that was needed was the will and a death certificate.

I heard it was specifically required... although maybe it was a lawyer answering a question!

There is this old post too:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/987793-closing-a-bank-account-of-a-deceased-person/?do=findComment&comment=11985557

[abrahamzvi]

20 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You need a last will and testament for both cases.

The only thing I would add that for the second case the will and testament will have to be also in respect of and signed by the partner

[Sea Traveller]

23 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I heard it was specifically required... although maybe it was a lawyer answering a question!

There is this old post too:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/987793-closing-a-bank-account-of-a-deceased-person/?do=findComment&comment=11985557

Thanks! In particular #4 in this old post had some detailed info. 

 

 

[Sea Traveller]

21 minutes ago, abrahamzvi said:

The only thing I would add that for the second case the will and testament will have to be also in respect of and signed by the partner

Yes that is important and I believe we will testament as what is in Thailand thus to my partners now adult Thai only children. As a matter of fact my own childrens in Sweden will get more than enough after me as from Sweden in case I would pass away. I am soon 59 so not very old but I did already some years ago make my will testament in Sweden which is stored in an official archive.

[dddave]

A friend tried to do this, acting as executor for a neighbor who died.  He left a Thai will stipulating that his partner was to receive all assets including bank balances remaining.  The bank put up every roadblock imaginable, demanding documents from the deceased that they never informed him about when he sought information for his will. They blatantly stonewalled him at every turn till he finally had to give-up and the beneficiary had to hire his own lawyer.  Whether or not he successfully pried any money out of the bank my friend does not know.

It very much seems that local banking institution have very murky protocols when it comes to handling a deceased depositors assets.    

[saengd]

12 minutes ago, dddave said:

A friend tried to do this, acting as executor for a neighbor who died.  He left a Thai will stipulating that his partner was to receive all assets including bank balances remaining.  The bank put up every roadblock imaginable, demanding documents from the deceased that they never informed him about when he sought information for his will. They blatantly stonewalled him at every turn till he finally had to give-up and the beneficiary had to hire his own lawyer.  Whether or not he successfully pried any money out of the bank my friend does not know.

It very much seems that local banking institution have very murky protocols when it comes to handling a deceased depositors assets.    

Your post makes no sense to me since every Will in Thailand must first go through Probate Court before the estate is distributed to heirs. If you're saying that the bank ignored the wishes of the Probate Court I don't believe you. If however you are saying that your friend tried to short circuit the system somehow I can only say, som nam naa.

[saengd]

4 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I have read before that is not needed here in most cases if a will was done here. All that was needed was the will and a death certificate.

I wrote to my bank, UOB, to ask exactly this question and they replied by saying that they, like every other bank in Thailand, required the approval of the Probate Court before distributing funds from a deceased clients account. It only makes sense that they would.

[giddyup]

4 minutes ago, saengd said:

I wrote to my bank, UOB, to ask exactly this question and they replied by saying that they, like every other bank in Thailand, required the approval of the Probate Court before distributing funds from a deceased clients account. It only makes sense that they would.

What about a joint account, is 50% frozen until probate?

[Sea Traveller]

13 minutes ago, dddave said:

A friend tried to do this, acting as executor for a neighbor who died.  He left a Thai will stipulating that his partner was to receive all assets including bank balances remaining.  The bank put up every roadblock imaginable, demanding documents from the deceased that they never informed him about when he sought information for his will. They blatantly stonewalled him at every turn till he finally had to give-up and the beneficiary had to hire his own lawyer.  Whether or not he successfully pried any money out of the bank my friend does not know.

It very much seems that local banking institution have very murky protocols when it comes to handling a deceased depositors assets.    

Thanks and this is the reason why I decided to bring this matter for discussion on this forum. 

So far my solution as to to give my thai women partner access to the money as on my accounts on Bangkok Bank is to hand her my Bualuang Bank Card which she has also has the code for. So in case something would for example happen to me while on my work at sea or on travel..She will have acess to take out the money. But if I lets say had had so much than 1 Million Baht I am not sure it would be possible to get out all money as there are some limits  and would be looking suspiciuos to do many max witdraws of 25.000 baht each as is the limit for each withdraw.
 

 

[saengd]

25 minutes ago, Sea Traveller said:

Yes that is important and I believe we will testament as what is in Thailand thus to my partners now adult Thai only children. As a matter of fact my own childrens in Sweden will get more than enough after me as from Sweden in case I would pass away. I am soon 59 so not very old but I did already some years ago make my will testament in Sweden which is stored in an official archive.

The advice of that poster is very wrong, your partner, deceased or alive, cannot sign on your will to influence distribution of the assets if you both die at the same time.

 

You as the will holder must specify the circumstances and conditions in your will, nobody else can influence or change those things. Typically, in order to satisfy the condition number 2 you mention you would specify that all your assets would go to your partner. But if your partner does not survive you by more than X number of days, typically this will be 30 days but it can be whatever you want, then your assets become part of your overseas estate and fall under your home country will, or, become the property of person Y who is named.

[NancyL]

Banks don't always require probate if there is a Thai Final Will, no other assets besides the bank account and the account holder and beneficiary are well-known to the bank personnel of the home bank branch of the account holder. Especially if the account holder was in ill health and reviewed his Final Will with the bank management.

 

In one case I know of, the bank manager and the account holder begged the Thai wife to clean out the man's 800,000 baht account used for his visa and set up an account in her own name but she refused, thinking it bad luck, even though her husband was close to death, wouldn't need another visa extension and wouldn't need the money again.  The local Bangkok Bank acted very quickly to transfer this money to her upon his death with presentation of his death certificate and Final Will -- no probate needed.  

[saengd]

5 minutes ago, giddyup said:

What about a joint account, is 50% frozen until probate?

If the joint account is written between person A AND person B, the account is frozen. But if the account is written as person A OR person B, the account is not frozen. We have made sure all our accounts are OR accounts, for this reason. 

 

If the account is written as an AND account and the the two parties are married, the bank will allow the remaining partner to access the account after death of the spouse, as long as proof of the marriage is made available and the bank sees a copy of the will showing the spouse to be the beneficiary. This is because the hereditary heirs list under Thai law would prove the partner to be the owner of the account, unless the will stipulated otherwise.

[thedemon]

8 minutes ago, Sea Traveller said:

Thanks and this is the reason why I decided to bring this matter for discussion on this forum. 

So far my solution as to to give my thai women partner access to the money as on my accounts on Bangkok Bank is to hand her my Bualuang Bank Card which she has also has the code for. So in case something would for example happen to me while on my work at sea or on travel..She will have acess to take out the money. But if I lets say had had so much than 1 Million Baht I am not sure it would be possible to get out all money as there are some limits  and would be looking suspiciuos to do many max witdraws of 25.000 baht each as is the limit for each withdraw.
 

 

 

I'm not sure what the Bangkok Bank ATM limits are but both Kasikorn and SCB have daily cash withdrawal limit of 200k and daily ATM transfer limit of 999,999. So your partner could transfer the whole amount into her own account at one time using only the ATM card.

 

I don't see any reason that would attract attention. It isn't a large enough amount and unless someone was to make a police complaint no one else would know or care.

[Sea Traveller]

11 minutes ago, saengd said:

I wrote to my bank, UOB, to ask exactly this question and they replied by saying that they, like every other bank in Thailand, required the approval of the Probate Court before distributing funds from a deceased clients account. It only makes sense that they would.

Yes I can’t see a way around this as is necessary by Thai laws.

 

By the way thanks for many very interesting posts from you about the strong baht and other matters concerning the economy in Thailand and more. 

 

 

[saengd]

Just now, thedemon said:

 

I'm not sure what the Bangkok Bank ATM limits are but both Kasikorn and SCB have daily cash withdrawal limit of 200k and daily ATM transfer limit of 999,999. So your partner could transfer the whole amount into her own account at one time using only the ATM card.

 

I don't see any reason that would attract attention. It isn't a large enough amount and unless someone was to make a police complaint no one else would know or care.

The bank would find out sooner or later that the account holder had died, at that point they would see the transfer and would sensibly tell the police since it would be illegal and they need to cover themselves.

[thedemon]

1 minute ago, saengd said:

The bank would find out sooner or later that the account holder had died, at that point they would see the transfer and would sensibly tell the police since it would be illegal and they need to cover themselves.

 

If this was in a western country yes maybe but in Thailand they won't find out and they won't care.

[saengd]

7 minutes ago, NancyL said:

Banks don't always require probate if there is a Thai Final Will, no other assets besides the bank account and the account holder and beneficiary are well-known to the bank personnel of the home bank branch of the account holder. Especially if the account holder was in ill health and reviewed his Final Will with the bank management.

 

In one case I know of, the bank manager and the account holder begged the Thai wife to clean out the man's 800,000 baht account used for his visa and set up an account in her own name but she refused, thinking it bad luck, even though her husband was close to death, wouldn't need another visa extension and wouldn't need the money again.  The local Bangkok Bank acted very quickly to transfer this money to her upon his death with presentation of his death certificate and Final Will -- no probate needed.  

I agree, I think we both said the same thing, we just said it slightly differently.

[saengd]

1 minute ago, thedemon said:

 

If this was in a western country yes maybe but in Thailand they won't find out and they won't care.

Why do you think multi billion Dollar asset banks in Thailand that are governed by the rule of law would behave any differently?

[bkk6060]

22 minutes ago, giddyup said:

What about a joint account, is 50% frozen until probate?

Does not apply in the OPś case as joint accounts are not allowed for the 800,000 b extension requirement.

[thedemon]

1 minute ago, saengd said:

Why do you think multi billion Dollar asset banks in Thailand that are governed by the rule of law would behave any differently?

 

From actual experience, not just making it up the way I think things are, as you are doing.

 

But anyway, have at it even if you're giving out spurious advice.

[saengd]

1 minute ago, thedemon said:

 

From actual experience, not just making it up the way I think things are, as you are doing.

 

But anyway, have at it even if you're giving out spurious advice.

That's quite funny. I've said that I wrote to my bank on this point and I've posted their reply. You however advocate that a surviving partner empty the deceased's account via an ATM, even though that person is now dead and even though there is a system of probate in Thailand and you call my advise spurious! 

 

Can I respectfully suggest that the next time you are in your bank, assuming you are old enough to have a bank account, that you ask them if your approach is OK with them and perhaps you can post their reply?

[The Man Who Sold the World]

American male with Thai wife. Assets in both countries. LW&T in both countries. Both LW&T indicate the same things.  In both our Thai and USA LW&T it is specifically stated that the surviving spouse has access to ALL funds, accounts, passwords and has signature authority over ALL assets of the deceased spouse. 

 

One point is that LW&T and legal documents are country specific and to protect your loved ones you must have legal documents that agree with each other in both Thailand and your mother country.

 

  

[giddyup]

12 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Does not apply in the OPś case as joint accounts are not allowed for the 800,000 b extension requirement.

I was asking as a general question.

[Sea Traveller]

3 minutes ago, The Man Who Sold the World said:

American male with Thai wife. Assets in both countries. LW&T in both countries. Both LW&T indicate the same things.  In both our Thai and USA LW&T it is specifically stated that the surviving spouse has access to ALL funds, accounts, passwords and has signature authority over ALL assets of the deceased spouse. 

 

One point is that LW&T and legal documents are country specific and to protect your loved ones you must have legal documents that agree with each other in both Thailand and your mother country.

 

  

Well...we have a de facto relationship i.e. We are not married which makes things possibly somewhat more complicated.

[BritManToo]

22 hours ago, Sea Traveller said:

Case 1: From this let’s say I die and I want that the money should go to my relationship partner. What do I need to already do now so my relationship partner could just go to Bangkok bank office and collect the money? A last will testament in Thailand only or something I need also to do at Bangkok bank or more?

BKB phone banking app on your phone, and give her the PIN.