Access to safe deposit box after death of a parent- time sensitive?

April 14, 2022 5:06 AM

I remember reading somewhere that it was important to quickly swoop in and open a safe deposit box following a death, as if the bank became aware of the death, they would require some sort of a probate procedure. Dad died yesterday- my mother and I both authorized to access the box- do we need to swoop in or is my dim recollection of something I read bogus? There are no valuables in it, just paperwork and stuff. Located in Illinois if it matters. TIA, my google fu is grief impaired.
posted by Larry David Syndrome to Law & Government (7 answers total)

It looks like the Illinois Safe Deposit Box Opening Act would allow you to open the box to retrieve only a will or burial documents if you provide the death certificate. IANAL, but based on those limitations, I would say that you are already too late to legally have access to the box. Whether you would be able to just sneak in and open the box is not something I would know.

I'm sorry for your loss and for your having to deal with this.
posted by FencingGal at 5:21 AM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

It looks like the Illinois Safe Deposit Box Opening Act would allow you to open the box to retrieve only a will or burial documents if you provide the death certificate.

This is similar to what I encountered -- with the death certificate I could retrieve the will, but anything else in there gets left until there is a probate process in place to legally dispose of the contents. However, that was for a situation where the account was in one person's name only, with no one else authorized to access it or jointly listed. This is going to vary depending on how that account and safety deposit box were set up -- if one of you is jointly listed and so has ongoing legal access, that is a very different situation.

So the basic idea of the advice you remember would be to go in and clean out the box before the bank knows about the death; whether or not that is a good idea is going to depend on the situation. Like, if you are not the executor, this is a bad idea, and also potentially a bad idea if it is likely to be a contested will situation (like where there is a dispute between siblings about how the estate should be handled). You don't want to add accusations of theft to that kind of messy and difficult situation.

I'm sorry for your loss.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:42 AM on April 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

if one of you is jointly listed and so has ongoing legal access, that is a very different situation.

The Illinois act includes in its definition of "interested person" anyone who had right of access to the box before the death. The act states that a person in that situation would still have to provide a death certificate and have a reason for accessing the contents - and again, it's only the will and burial documents that would be available. It would probably be different if the box were in some way jointly owned, but in Illinois at least, access to a box before a death doesn't mean access afterwards.

So unless the box was jointly owned, there doesn't seem to be a legal way to access it without the bank knowing. Sneaking in, if even possible, seems like a bad idea for the reasons Dip Flash mentions. And there could be other reasons as well.
posted by FencingGal at 6:02 AM on April 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I believe the box is jointly owned. I am not an owner, but I do have access. Mom and I are the only family, so there's no possibility of legal disputes over the estate. Also, there's nothing of value in there anyway. We'll see if mom is up for some light law-breaking in honor of my late dad's love of "sticking it to the man." I guess it's probably now or a looong wait to go through proper channels.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:33 AM on April 14, 2022 [15 favorites]

FWIW when my father died, I found that various authorities seemed totally cool to allow, as you say, "a little light law-breaking." Like, his bank let me move money and access his safety deposit box, even knowing he had died. I was surprised because it felt like they were taking a bit of a risk to make things easy for our family, and I appreciated it. FWIW I didn't get the sense it was one person bending over backwards for us -- rather, I got the sense that it was their normal & pragmatic stance. YMM of course V.

If it's possible for you to just go in and open the box, because your mom is co-owner, then I would totally just do that and clean it out.

I'm sorry about your dad. Hugs to you and your mom <3
posted by Susan PG at 7:52 AM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Access to a safe deposit box does not imply ownership of the contents. All contents of the safe deposit box still are property of your dad's estate, subject to probate. Although I doubt anyone would care given that you're just interested in the will, transferring property illicitly through a safe deposit box to avoid probate and taxes is a thing. If your dad has significant assets otherwise that might potentially be stored in the safe deposit box (gold, paper stock certificates, paper bonds, etc), you may conceivably attract the attention of the IRS by accessing his safe deposit box illicitly.
posted by saeculorum at 8:57 AM on April 14, 2022

Response by poster: For those of you following along at home: mission accomplished. Not to be chatfiltery, but thanks to those who offered their condolences. More often than not, MeFi renews my faith in humanity. I guess we'll see if the IRS kicks mom's door down for taking a VHS cassette of my son's first steps and Dad's military discharge papers from the '60s outside of the formal probate process :-)
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 2:35 PM on April 14, 2022 [18 favorites]