Bank Accounts and Death...Inheritance Rights

[OMGImInPattaya]

I currently care for an elderly parent who is retired in Thailand. In order to easily process the annual visa extension, I have deposited 1M baht in a thai bank in their name. They are the only name in the account and the person has no other thai or foreign relations or heirs, other than myself.

My question is it possible to title thai bank accounts in such a way so as to avoid thai court procedures and/or wills so as to obtain access to the funds on the account owners death. In the US, banks have what are called pay on death title options on accounts where upon presentation of a death certificate, the named post-death receipent is immediately given access to the account funds. Dies anything like this exist in LOS?

[huanga]

put the 1M deposit in a checking account and just have your parents sign a check or checks back to you to use it when that day comes.

[KittenKong]

Better to put it in an interest bearing account that has an ATM card. That way you can just withdraw the money (if you know the PIN).

The extension only requires 800K, by the way. I deposit 801K to be on the safe side.

[AyG]

Better to put it in an interest bearing account that has an ATM card. That way you can just withdraw the money (if you know the PIN).

The extension only requires 800K, by the way. I deposit 801K to be on the safe side.

That would be illegal - stealing money from a dead person. Could cause a few problems.

I doubt there's a shortcut. To make things easier in the event of the inevitable, make sure the parent has made a Thai will listing the account.

[regedit]

Can you make it a joint account, ie. in the name of you and your parent, meaning any funds would be jointly owned ?

[KittenKong]

Better to put it in an interest bearing account that has an ATM card. That way you can just withdraw the money (if you know the PIN).

The extension only requires 800K, by the way. I deposit 801K to be on the safe side.

That would be illegal - stealing money from a dead person. Could cause a few problems.

I would take my chances with that. With people of advanced age one often gets a fair bit of warning before death anyway.

Another option would be to have two accounts; one joint and one sole-name and move the money from one to the other as required. It only needs to be in the sole-name account for the 3 months preceding the extension application.

A power of attorney would be legal whilst the parent is living, but I suspect that it would be automatically cancelled on death.

[keeniau96]

My wife has a detailed list of ex-mortis things to do, including using my ATM car with PIN to clean out the bank account. All this in a tamper-proof sealed envelope, of course.

[Jack Mountain]

Just an idea, if you have internetbanking on that account you can make 'future date' transactions to your account. Not forget to move the date forward before it expires and your parent still needs the money ...

Thinking abt it, you just need the internet banking data (accountname, password and the SIM card which is used when doing transfers) to get your money out ...

Edited November 12, 2013 by Jack Mountain

[OMGImInPattaya]

Can you make it a joint account, ie. in the name of you and your parent, meaning any funds would be jointly owned ?

Yes, this would be the easy way, however, I think for the annual retirement renewal, the account used must be in the extender's name only. Maybe if it was a joint account, they would require minimum of 800k each, e.g., an account with 1.6M in deposit. This would not be a problem financially if it was acceptable to immigration.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Some interesting ideas and suggestions here and I thank you for them. The parent is currently in a Thai nursing home in the Pattaya area so I have to handle all the banking and immigration related stuff myself.

I currently have an account wherein I have possession and use of the ATM card. My only fear with this is if I lost/damaged the card or it expired after death and I hadn't yet cleaned out the account, I couldn't get another card easily or at all. Same with the lost or damaged card.

Also, even to get the bank balance statement for the extension, as I'm not on the account, they made me drag my 89 y/o parent from the home to the branch to verify identity. I would like to avoid such in the future.

[KittenKong]

Also, even to get the bank balance statement for the extension, as I'm not on the account, they made me drag my 89 y/o parent from the home to the branch to verify identity. I would like to avoid such in the future.

This part at least must be unnecessary as it seems to be possible for third parties (agents) to do the entire extension process on your behalf, including the bank letter.

In case of problems with whatever solution you go for (and without doing anything at all illegal) you would probably find that engaging a Thai visa agent to help with the paperwork would smooth the way, for a fee of course.

And maybe you could look for a more helpful bank?

Another option would be to get the extension based on income, as many consulates seem to be happy just to rubber-stamp the income declaration made by the applicant. According to someone previously connected to the UK consular service here you don't even need to use your own consulate to do this.

The matter of using a joint account for an extension was discussed in another thread recently. I seem to remember that it was OK if the amount was 1.6MB though I could be mistaken.

Of course this will most likely depend on which immigration office you use and the mood of the immigration officer on the day.

[Jip99]

put the 1M deposit in a checking account and just have your parents sign a check or checks back to you to use it when that day comes.

Upon death all mandates are cancelled.

Those cheques would not be valid (other than to claim them as a debt owed by the estate - but that would be a legal nightmare in Thailand).

[Jip99]

My wife has a detailed list of ex-mortis things to do, including using my ATM car with PIN to clean out the bank account. All this in a tamper-proof sealed envelope, of course.

Sound practical advice - even if it is illegal.

Let's hope she doesn't cock-up the PIN number and have the card retained - she would never get it back.

Make a Will covering Thai assets so she can get the cash from the bank that way, if necessary.