We have a woman calling in to the branch who is a non customer but is the wife of one of our customers. Apparently the customer has since passed away and the wife was calling to try and close out the account and get the money. She was told by the Register of Wills that a short certificate is no longer required because of the account balance. However, we as a bank have always required a copy of death certificate and an original short certificate. Do we tell the customer that it doesn't matter that the state does not require you to retrieve one and it's our policy to retrieve a short certificate? Or do we need to change our practices? There is just some concern because without a short certificate how do we know the money is entilted to this woman? How do we know who this woman is without her being a customer? There was a suggestion to just collect the death certificate and make the check payable to our customer's estate but there is speculation that there is not an estate account set up.

Act 35 of 2013 enacted July 2 made changes to Pennsylvania’s probate statute Title 20 Pa. C.S.A.) affecting payments which may be made directly from decedents’ deposit accounts and certificates and the settlement of small estates.
The changes affect the estates of decedents dying on or after August 31, 2013.

Below is from the PA Bankers Assoc summary

Direct Deposit from deposit accounts: Amendements to 3101 (b) increases to $10,000 from the current $3,500 the total amount of a deposit account or certificate from which a financial institution shall (currently may) make payment directly to specified family members (the order of preference of which is spouse, any child, the father, mother, or any sister or brother) who present a receipted funeral bill or funeral director's affidavit that funeral arrangements have been made for the deceased. The current statutes provisions that a financial institution making such a payment shall be released to the same extent as if payment had been made to a duly-appointed (i.e. by the county Register of Wills) personal representative and that person to whom direct payment is made remains answerable to any prejudiced by an improper distribution remain unchanged.

Hope that helps a little.

I didn't know it went up! Wow.

The short certificate is evidence that the estate was probated and not all estates need to be probated, so I wouldn't require it if the balances fall beneath $10,000 and the estate was not probated.

For close out of decedent accounts when the estate has not been probated, we require a death certificate, proof of the paid funeral bill, and an affidavit completed and signed by the claimant. State guidelines refer to payment order being spouse, then children, then parents, then siblings.

The affidavit states who is claiming the funds, their relationship, states that the estate was not probated and that the funeral bill was paid. I found the affidavit on a county website.

If you would like a copy of the affidavit, PM me your email address and I'll send it to you

Whom would you make the check payable to when being claimed by a relative?

We would make the check payable directly to the person claiming the funds as long as there was not an outstanding funeral bill.

The remittance section of the check would contain detailed information "account closing from estate of John Smith payable to Mary Smith, spouse"