When we become aware of the death of a primary owner of a joint deposit account, what is the best practice in regard to the mailing of statements on the account? What if there is no joint owner?

We recommend that joint account statements be mailed only to the surviving account holder after the death of a joint account holder. Due to privacy concerns, we do not recommend mailing statements to the deceased joint account holder’s address if it is different than the surviving account holder’s address, as this could risk exposing the surviving account holder’s private financial information to unauthorized third parties, which would violate the federal privacy rules (Regulation P).

An executor or administrator for the deceased joint account holder has a right to access information relating to the joint account up to the date of the decedent’s death, but does not have a right to access information relating to the account after the decedent’s death. The right of the executor or administrator to access account information relating to the period before the joint account holder’s death is based on Regulation P’s exception for “persons holding a legal or beneficial interest relating to the consumer” and for “persons acting in a fiduciary or representative capacity on behalf of the consumer . . . .” 12 CFR 1016.15(a)(1)(iv), (v). An executor or administrator of an estate would fall squarely within these exceptions with respect to information relating to the account prior to the joint account holder’s death. However, the authority of an executor or administrator under these exceptions is strictly derived from the decedent’s own interests, and the interests of a joint account holder in a joint account ceases upon that joint account holder’s death. See 765 ILCS 1005/2 (ownership of the account automatically passes to the other joint owner when one joint owner dies). Accordingly, an executor or administrator’s interest in the joint account also ceases as of the date of the joint account holder’s death.

When we are not talking about a joint account, if you are aware of the death of the account holder and there is no payable on death beneficiary, we recommend holding onto any subsequent account statements until an executor, administrator or other person with a legal or beneficial interest relating to your customer requests the information. Again, mailing account statements to the deceased account holder’s address could risk exposing the decedent’s private financial information to unauthorized third parties.