Banks, courts frustrate families’ access to deceased estate

Birth and death are a cycle of life, as nature is composed of opposites, such as heat and cold, strong and weak, ad infinitum. In Nigeria, as in many countries around the world, the death of a family member is always traumatizing and difficult to bear.

But as the Nigerian experience has shown, the initial trauma that the news of the death inflicts on members of the family of the deceased may practically be nothing compared to the trouble the family goes through to access the deceased’s savings in the bank.

This is more distressing especially if the deceased died intestate, that’s without a will, but even in cases where the person in question died testate – with will- there’s still a measure of hassle accessing their savings . In Nigeria, prominent families such as Chief Rotimi Williams, Augustine Ilodibe, the Ibrus, the Okotie Ebohs and many others have been entangled in lengthy court cases over inheritance upon the deaths of their patriarchs.

There have been numerous cases of lamentations and woes by family members of the deceased. This is because officially declared next-of –kin of the deceased often find it difficult to get the money left in the bank by the dead member of the family. These traumas are as a result of troubles they go through to access their deceased’s savings, with many telling Business Hallmark that they have had to abandon the efforts to access these savings altogether.

This is the dilemma currently facing Kehinde Olorunleke, a fashion designer.

His father, David Olorunleke, a retired local government employee in Kogi State died on September 30,, 2021 after a long battle with kidney disease.

The 65-year-old left behind five children, and his wife had earlier died in 2016.

The death of both parents, seven years apart, dealt a devastating blow to the children, especially the eldest, Kehinde, as he became saddled with the huge task of shouldering his siblings’ responsibilities, a heavy burden for him given that he has a wife and three children of his own to cater for.

The 39-year-old fashion designer told Business Hallmark that the deaths of their parents was the beginning of a difficult experience for them, adding that their predicament was worsened by the fact that he was denied access to his father’s savings in a bank.

The money, he noted, would have gone a long way to improve their living condition.

He alleged that the money, domiciled in a leading tier one bank could not be accessed three years after his father’s death for reasons he was yet to fully comprehend.

Battle with bank

According to Kehinde, he was his father’s official next of kin, this he said was clear to him from his late father’s bank account documents, aside the fact that his father had before his demise told him this. Armed with this information, he visited a branch of the bank in December 2022, a year after his death, to make inquiries on how to access his account.

He said what he thought would be a seamless exercise for him and his other siblings to access the money had turned out to be a complicated one.

Hear him: “I got the shock of my life when the bank officials informed me that they have to investigate who my father listed as his next-of-kin. Initially I thought it was a joke, but when I saw that they were serious . I told them that I was the one. I explained to them that any time I helped my father to fill out forms meant for the local government, he always insisted that I write my name in the space meant for the next-of-kin. I told them to cross-check his account opening forms, which they did and confirmed my status.”

Next-of-kin standing

When Business Hallmark consulted Investopedia, financial media website, ‘Next-of-kin’, denotes a person’s closest living relative(s), such as children, or those with a legal standing, such as spouses or adopted children.

What this means is a trusted person authorised by an individual to make certain decisions or actions on his behalf and in his absence, especially in the event of death.

It is a usual official procedure for financial institutions to request the details of the next-of-kin when setting up an account because it is regarded as necessary documentation.

According to another financial website Cowrywise, when an account holder designates an individual as the next-of-kin, the financial assets do not immediately go to the person.

“It simply means that they are the first point of contact if you happen to pass on. They are supposed to be the trusted person that you know will do the right thing and ensure all processes are done correctly,” it stated.

Kehinde started that after the bank confirmed and verified his status as the next-of-kin , he was informed that the money left in his father’s account was N200, 000.

‘’ I simply refuted that claim because I knew my father had more than that. This is because I was also managing his account for him, and I knew the amounts that were going in there as well as keeping tab on the withdrawals’’, he said.

Kehinde noted that in spite of the fact that he made his position on the disputed account balance known to the bank, he was directed to get a letter of administration from the Kogi State High Court and a letter of identification from the local government where his father last worked before he could start the processes to access the account.

According to him, he secured and submitted the two required documents in March, 2022, and was given assurance of a speedy feedback once the court confirmed his status.

He alleged that to his utter dismay, the bank started dilly-dallying.

He claimed that up till now, the bank was yet to reach out to him as promised.

“The last time I called, I was told that they had not verified the documents at the High Court,” Kehinde said. Asked to name the bank, he said he did not want to jeopardise his chances in the bank, adding that if the bank continues to maintain studied silence without reaching out to him, he will go to press as he has no money to hire a lawyer.

The fashion designer lamented that the inability to access his father’s savings has put the entire family in financial distress, which has affected feeding and other basic needs. He noted that he and his brothers and sisters had planned to invest the money in agriculture but now that prospect was being endangered.

Findings

According to BH’s findings, it is not an easy process accessing a deceased person’s bank account by a next-of-kin. The process is not seamless and mired with challenges, especially if the person died intestate. It must be noted that the Nigerian law on succession is generally classified under two broad headings, namely, testate and intestate.

BH also discovered that different Customary, Islamic or English Laws are taken into cognizance when someone dies intestate.

In a paper presented in 2017, a former President of the Customary Court of Appeal, Abuja, Justice Moses Bello threw more light on the patterns of intestate inheritance and succession under Customary Law in Nigeria, noting that it differs.

He said, “(They) have almost as many variations as there are ethnic groups in the country. In fact, it could be said that the law of succession and inheritance reflects Nigeria’s plural legal system. The resultant effect of this state of affairs, therefore, is the absence of a uniformity of rules of succession.”

He made an allusion to a Yoruba man that died intestate in Benin City, Edo State, where succession of his properties became a serious legal tussle.

“One Adeyinka Olowu, a Yoruba man from Ijesha, having lived most of his life in Benin City, married Benin women and birthed his children in Benin. He applied to the Oba of Benin to be naturalized as a Benin citizen. His application was granted and he attained the status of a Benin man and lived his life as such, enjoying all the privileges of a Benin citizen and acquired landed properties as a result. He died intestate and his estate was distributed in accordance with his acquired Benin native law and custom, but some of his children were dissatisfied and challenged the distribution.

“It was their contention that his original Ijesha Customary Law should be applicable to the distribution. The trial High Court held in favour of the Benin Native Law and Custom on the grounds that the deceased, though a Yoruba man by extraction, his naturalisation conferred on him, the rights of a Bini man, which rights he enjoyed considerably.”

He stated that position of the trial court was upheld by the Court of Appeal and subsequently, the Supreme Court.

In spite of these cultural differences, Business Hallmark gathered that banks have a uniform policy that allows families to access their loved one’s accounts.

A lawyer, Leke Job told this newspaper that banks have a uniform policy on accessing an account of the deceased by the next-of-kin or any other claimant which routinely involves the presentation of either a letter of probate or a letter of administration sanctioned by a High Court.

Legal Beagle defines a letter of probate as a court order that gives authorization to an executor or administrator to handle the administrative matters of a deceased person’s collective estate.

“Probate refers to the entire process of administering the estates of the deceased, with court supervision”, it added

According to Job, a letter of administration is a personal power granted to a named person to administer the estate of a deceased person, who died intestate (without a will).

He noted that those mentioned in a letter of administration are referred to as administrators, while those authorised by the probate letter are called executors.

He noted that “Anything short of this, nothing can bring out the money. Not the spouse or even the children.’’Yje administration of Estates Laws of various jurisdictions provides guidance on the order of priority of persons who are entitled to be granted Letter of Right of Administration.

In the view of Chaman Law Firm, under the law, the surviving wife or husband along with the children of the deceased stand at the apex of the hierarchy of the beneficiaries of the wealth of a person who dies without a will.

“They inherit his estate to the exclusion of every other person”, it added.

According to Adewale Akintote, a banker the role of the bank is to verify the court document and identity of the holders.

“The bank is meant to validate the identity of the person on the letter of administration and verify if the deceased have other accounts’, he noted.

It was gathered that after verification, an estate account will be opened, where all the savings of the deceased are to be transferred.

Akintote said thereafter, the estate account will be subsequently managed by the executor or administrator, saying , “In the case of a deceased person, who has more than one personal bank account and an estate account has been opened, the money in other accounts will be transferred into the estate account.

“Only one estate account can be opened in the name of the deceased, regardless of the number of accounts the person had while alive.”

On whether the process can last as much as one or two years, as in the case of Olorunleke, he said, “It’s not something that takes that long if all documents have been verified by the legal department.”

Bureaucratic uncertainty

As with Kehinde’s case, Anthony Ambrose, a Lagos-based surveyor has not been able to access his late father’s money domiciled in several banks.

He told BH that his father, Ambrose Ilenre who was a federal civil servant before he retired in 2015 died in 2021..

Anthony who by his own account was the only son said when his father was alive he had banked his money with five commercial banks – whose names he declined to mention..

He said he has made several spirited efforts to retrieve his father’s deposits three years after his demise without success.

He noted that the family presented letters of administration to all of them adding that only one of them had responded positively.

He said the one that responded positively was Access Bank, which after verifying the letter of administration, directed that an estate account be opened.

“After the account was opened, we waited throughout 2021, but nothing happened. In April 2022, we got a call from the bank that a cheque had been sent to the Abuja High Court and that the court would pay the amount involved into the estate account. The money was paid as promised,” he said.

Benjamin alleged that other banks are yet to pay into the estate account as expected.

Exorbitant lawyers’ letter

BH’s investigations revealed that the delay from the banks may not be the whole story as obtaining a letter of administration is actually a herculean, money draining process.

The court processes are much more complicated as it involves the submission of the deceased’s death certificate and other documents and the greatest headache could come from the intrigues of lawyers saddled with the responsibility of processing the documents to obtain a letter of administration. According to investigations, these lawyers charge exorbitant fees to those who seek their help to process letters of administration. Some lawyers, BH found charges as high as between N200, 000 and N250,000 for a letter of administration.

Olorunleke confirmed this, saying that the lawyer he initially contacted requested for N220, 000, which he could not afford.