Answer:
Answer by John Burnett: The joint account normally vests in the survivor(s) at the time of death. When the bank has notice of such a death, it should wait a respectful period of time -- 30 days seems appropriate, but the bank needs to decide -- and contact the survivor(s) for anything needed to get the account ownership data updated. I don't advocate acting without contacting a surviving owner only because such things have been known to backfire before. You'd be really embarrassed if you thought that Harry C. Smith of 123 Main Street died when it was really Harry S. Smith of 126 Main Street.
For a single party account, your contact would be with a surviving family member, if you know of one, and you would definitely not act to change the account (other than flagging it as "owner deceased" for internal purposes and addressing any recurring federal direct deposits) until that contact is made.
Answer:
Answer by Ken Golliher: Agreed, there is no explicit time frame for correcting account titles after the death of an owner. Keep in mind though, your IRS information reporting at the end of the year must be correct and properly pro rate the interest if you were reporting on the name/TIN combination of the decedent at the time of death. If you do not revise the account title in that time frame, the information reported will likely be incorrect.
First published on BankersOnline.com 8/20/12
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