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2. Family History
2.3 Death in family
It was at 10:20pm on the night of 8 January 1997 that I received
the call that my father had passed away. This was a great
shock to me since although dad was not in perfect health we was
not unwell. However, he was 90 years old, and had had a good
life and had survived both world wars.
I am an accountant with a major multinational company and 31
December was the financial year-end and we had to finalise our
accounts to a very aggressive timetable. However, my
employer was generous and gave me some time off, though not as
much as I really needed.
On 9 January 1997, I travelled to Bognor Regis to sort our my
father's affairs and then at approximately 11:45am on 10 January
1997 I went into the Halifax Building Society Branch in the High
Street, Bognor Regis and sought advice on what I should do
regarding my father's Halifax Building Society account.
I recall meeting a tall gentleman called Tim at the branch who
was sitting at a desk in the open office area, and not behind
the security screens. Tim from the Halifax advised me that: we
must neither leave the account in my father's name nor should we
close it since if we took either of these actions we would
completely lose the share bonus. I refer to "we" here
because my brother and myself were joint executors in my
father's will.
I explained my
brother's and my investment and mortgage situation and I was
advised that the account should be renamed "John Perry and David
Perry executors for L Perry". Tim explained that I would receive
the highest share bonus and so the account should be renamed
with my name appearing first.
As a result of this advice from the Halifax, I suggested to my
brother that he need not actively act as an executor and so I
applied for probate with myself as executor (since my name first
on the account was the key for the share bonus). Halifax
Building Society were later to inappropriately contend that as I
was the executor, the account could not have consequently be
renamed with my brother's name first and so my action
disqualified us from the higher share bonus.
The fact was,
as I was later to find out, I had been given incorrect advice
and that if we had arranged for my brother's name to appear
first on the passbook we would have received a greater share
bonus. Had we received this advice instead, my brother
would of course have remained an executor. The decision on who
would be the executor was made on 10 January 1997.
Page created on 26 June 2002,
last updated:
22 October 2006 22:54
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