My sibling and I are Dad’s executors … but we’ve fallen out badly
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He left £60,000 in an account, and now it’s stuck there because they won’t engage with me over the administration of the estate. My father died with a Barclays account balance of over £60,000. My sibling and I were joint executors. The money in the estate was to be divided equally between us and the rest of our siblings.
![[Anna Tims]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/08/Anna_Tims,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Unfortunately, the relationship between my sibling and me has broken down and they are not engaging with me, or the administration of the estate. We had a meeting with Barclays to open an executor’s account last year but, before it started, they texted me to say they would not be attending. I therefore submitted the required forms to open the executor account on my own.
Barclays has allowed my share of the money to be paid for me, but that leaves thousands stuck in a current account which it refuses to release to me so I can administer the estate. It won’t even move the funds to a savings account where they could be earning interest.
Barclays says it needs joint instructions, and that I should start legal proceedings to have my sibling removed as an executor. This would be an expensive endeavour for what is relatively a small amount of money. This seems an arbitrary decision by Barclays.
Name withheld. I’m so sorry to hear of your grief. Barclays tells me that it has to have the signatures of both named executors on a closure form before a balance can be paid into an agreed account, and the deceased’s account closed. Apparently, your sibling called Barclays to ask why you had already been paid your share, which suggests they could lodge a complaint if the bank paid the rest of the money without their permission.
