2026-08-10 · 24 min read

How to access a deceased person's bank account, step by step

How to access a deceased person's bank account: joint, POD, and sole accounts compared, the documents banks require, and how long each route really takes.

Access depends on how the account was titled, not on how you were related. A joint account with right of survivorship or a payable-on-death (POD) designation pays the survivor or the named beneficiary in days, on a certified death certificate and photo ID. A sole account with no beneficiary stays locked until someone brings court authority — letters testamentary, letters of administration, or a small-estate affidavit — and marriage by itself unlocks nothing.

New York's court law librarians say it without hedging: "you will not automatically be able to access their bank accounts unless you are a named joint owner on the account" (NY Courts Ask a Law Librarian).

Which of the three account types are you dealing with?#

Settle this before you call the bereavement line. It decides whether your next step is a counter transaction or a probate petition, and being next of kin does not move the answer.

Account type	Who the money goes to	Court authority needed?	What the bank asks for	Realistic timing
Joint with right of survivorship	The surviving owner, "or equally to the rest of the owners if there are multiple people" (CFPB)	No	Certified death certificate, your ID, the account agreement	Days
Joint as tenants in common	That owner's share "passes to their heirs, either as described in their will or per their state's laws" (CFPB)	Yes, for the deceased owner's share	Death certificate plus letters from the probate court	Months
POD / TOD / ITF / Totten trust	The named beneficiaries, directly, "without a written trust agreement" (FDIC)	No	Certified death certificate, your ID, proof you are the named beneficiary	Days
Sole account, no beneficiary	The estate	Yes, unless a small-estate route applies	Letters testamentary (with a will), letters of administration (no will), or a certificate of voluntary administration (NY Courts)	Weeks to well over a year

Two traps live in that table. First, "joint" is not a synonym for "survivorship" — the CFPB's fix is direct: "You can look up the details in your account agreement, or ask your bank or credit union for the information." Second, a POD designation is a form signed at the bank, not a line in a will: the FDIC describes such an account as one created when the owner "signs an agreement with the IDI directing the IDI to transfer the funds in the account to one or more named beneficiaries upon the owner's death." A will that contradicts the POD form does not move the money.

Does being married give me access to my spouse's account?#

No. Marriage does not put your name on a sole account, and the bank will treat you like any other claimant until you produce either a survivorship claim or court authority.

A few states do let a bank hand a spouse small sums with no letters at all, and a teller will rarely volunteer it — name the statute. Under New York SCPA § 1310, a bank may pay a surviving spouse "not more than thirty thousand dollars" immediately with no letters; not less than 30 days after the death it may pay "not more than fifteen thousand dollars" to a spouse, adult children, parents, siblings, nieces or nephews, creditors, or someone who paid funeral expenses; and not less than six months after, it may pay a debt not exceeding $5,000 to distributees, creditors, or funeral-expense payers where no spouse or minor children survive. Washington's version is smaller in dollars and wider in who qualifies: RCW 30A.22.190 provides that where the balance "does not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars," payment "may be made to the surviving spouse, next of kin, funeral director, or other creditor who may appear to be entitled thereto upon receipt of proof of death and an affidavit to the effect that no personal representative has been appointed."

Can you get money out without going through probate?#

Often, yes. California's courts publish the cleanest list of what skips probate entirely: joint tenancy ("If the property is owned in joint tenancy, the surviving owner gets the property"), transfer-on-death designations, community property with survivorship rights, named beneficiaries on life insurance, bank and retirement accounts, pensions and annuities, and property held in a living trust (California Courts Self Help).

When the account is sole and modest, the small-estate affidavit is the next route. Thresholds and conditions vary sharply:

State	Route and ceiling	Waiting period	Conditions worth knowing
California	Affidavit for collection of personal property, gross estate up to $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 (was $184,500 from April 1, 2022; $166,250 before) (Sacramento County Public Law Library)	40 days	Other heirs entitled to the property must also sign the affidavit
New York	Voluntary administration, personal property of $50,000 or less under SCPA article 13 (NY Courts)	—	The certificate of voluntary administration is issued in place of letters testamentary or letters of administration (NY Courts)
Texas	Small estate affidavit, estate assets not exceeding $75,000 excluding homestead and exempt property (Tex. Est. Code § 205.001)	30 days	Only where there was no will; requires "a list of all known estate assets and liabilities," indicating which are claimed exempt; sworn to by "two disinterested witnesses" and "each distributee of the estate who has legal capacity" (§ 205.002)
Washington	Successor affidavit, estate subject to probate not exceeding $100,000 (RCW 11.62.010)	40 days	The holder of the property must deliver it to a claiming successor on proof of death and a conforming affidavit

One caution on the California figure: the state's own self-help site was still displaying the prior $184,500 threshold at the time of writing, so confirm the current number with the court or the institution before you file.

California also tells you what to bring: a certified death certificate, proof the decedent owned the property such as a bank statement, and proof of your own identity. Notarization is not required by law there, but "many institutions require a notarized affidavit, especially when securities are involved."

What documents will the bank actually ask for?#

Build one folder before the appointment. A bereavement desk turns away photocopies, and a reordered certified copy costs you another week.

Certified death certificates, ordered from the vital records office of the state where the death occurred — the federal government does not issue them (USAGov). Order several; each institution keeps one.
Your own government photo ID.
The account agreement, if you can find it — this is what settles the survivorship question.
Court authority for a sole account: letters testamentary if there was a will, letters of administration if there was not, or a certificate of voluntary administration for a small estate.
An estate EIN from the IRS. To open an estate bank account the fiduciary needs both authority from the Surrogate's Court and an EIN (NY Courts). The estate's income tax return is Form 1041, and IRS Publication 559 is the reference for the rest.
Proof you are the named beneficiary, for a POD or TOD claim.

For anything owed to the person rather than held by them, the proof requirement is the same shape. The IRS will not release a decedent's tax information until you "show proof you're authorized to receive it," and points to Form 56, Form 1310, Form 4810, and Form 1041 (IRS, Deceased Person). Form 1310 is required for representatives who were not court-appointed; a surviving spouse filing a joint return does not need it, and neither does a court-appointed representative who attaches a copy of the court certificate to the return (IRS Topic no. 356).

Can I use their debit card, PIN, or online banking if I know the password?#

No, and this is the part most articles soften. Knowing the credentials is not authority, and continuing to draw on the account is prosecuted as theft of government property when benefits are involved.

A Schenectady, New York woman was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $95,961 in restitution for spending Social Security benefits that continued to be deposited into her deceased mother's bank account from January 2015, the month of the death, until August 2018 (SSA OIG; DOJ, NDNY). A former Silver Spring, Maryland physician was sentenced to two years in federal prison plus three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $517,000, for mail fraud and theft of government property after concealing her mother's 2005 death and continuing to collect her Social Security and New York City teachers' retirement benefits from June 2005 through June 2018 — withdrawing the money in cash or transferring it to her own accounts each month (SSA OIG).

A power of attorney does not rescue this either. The OCC's HelpWithMyBank.gov is explicit: "Generally, the POA automatically expires upon the death of the account holder," with state law and the terms of the POA governing the details (HelpWithMyBank.gov). The agent who has been paying the utility bills all year loses that authority the moment the account holder dies.

What has to be returned to the government?#

Social Security cannot pay benefits for the month of death. If the person died in July, the payment that arrives in August covers July and must go back, along with any payment for the month of death or later (SSA Publication 05-10008). Where the benefit arrived by direct deposit, SSA's instruction is to contact the bank or other financial institution and ask it to return those funds. Money genuinely owed to the person still gets claimed the legitimate way — through Form SSA-1724, the claim for amounts due in the case of a deceased beneficiary.

How do I find accounts when I don't know where they banked?#

There is no master index. USAGov's guidance is that you may be able to file for unclaimed money "that was owed to a deceased relative if you are their legal heir," and that "There is no single place to look for all unclaimed money" (USAGov). Search in this order:

State unclaimed property. unclaimed.org is run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, a network of the National Association of State Treasurers. Most states also participate in MissingMoney.com, "a free website, sponsored by NAUPA, from which you can search participating state's databases for unclaimed property" (unclaimed.org). Search every state the person lived or banked in, not just the last one.
Understand the escheatment clock. "Generally, an account is considered abandoned or unclaimed when there is no customer-initiated activity or contact for a period of three to five years," with the specific period set by each state's escheatment laws (HelpWithMyBank.gov). An account belonging to someone who went silent years ago may now sit with a state treasurer rather than a bank.
Closed institutions. The OCC directs you to "the unclaimed-property office or state treasurer for the state where the account was held," noting that "All states have programs requiring banks to transfer funds held in abandoned accounts to the state" (OCC). USAGov adds the FDIC for failed banks, NCUA for failed credit unions, PBGC for unclaimed pensions, and the IRS for unclaimed refunds.
Savings bonds and Treasury securities. Treasury Hunt is gone — "As of September 30, 2025, the Treasury Hunt® tool is no longer available" (TreasuryDirect). Where the estate is not being administered through court, FS Form 5336 lets a "voluntary representative" act where the estate's "savings bonds and other Treasury securities ... in total come to $100,000 or less in redemption value as of the date of death"; the representative "must be at least 18 years old, competent to do this, and be the surviving spouse, blood relative, legally adopted child, or next of kin as determined by law," and a strict order of priority decides who qualifies. You will need a certified death certificate for everyone named on the bonds who has died.
Paper and tax records. Statements and mail keep arriving for months; the final income tax return reports all income to the date of death, which surfaces interest from accounts nobody remembered.

In practice the fastest index of where someone banked is their email, because every institution sends statements there. That runs into the same standing problem one layer up: Google has its own process and its own evidence requirements, which we walk through in how to access a deceased person's Google account.

How long does each route take?#

A POD claim or a survivorship claim is a counter transaction: certified death certificate, ID, done in days. Formal probate is a different order of magnitude — California's courts state that "The entire process typically takes 9 to 18 months and can sometimes take even longer" (Cal. Courts).

Inside that window sit deadlines that are easy to miss. In California, a creditor must file a claim by the later of "four months after the date letters are first issued to a general personal representative" or "sixty days after the date notice of administration is mailed or personally delivered to the creditor" (Cal. Prob. Code § 9100). The personal representative must petition for final distribution or file a report on the status of administration no later than one year after letters issue — 18 months if a federal estate tax return is required (Cal. Prob. Code § 12200).

Does FDIC insurance still cover the account?#

Yes, temporarily, and the rules reward acting inside the window. The FDIC insures a deceased owner's accounts "as if he or she were still alive for six months after his or her death" under 12 C.F.R. § 330.3(j) — deliberate breathing room to restructure accounts without losing coverage (FDIC). The grace period is not applied "in the rare event that the application of the grace period would cause a reduction in the amount of deposit insurance coverage."

There is no equivalent cushion on the other side of the designation: "there is no grace period upon the death of a beneficiary of a deposit account and, therefore, there may be an immediate reduction of deposit insurance coverage." A POD list naming someone who died first can shrink coverage the same day, with no notice from the bank.

The underlying math: "The standard maximum deposit insurance amount is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category." For joint accounts, "each co-owner's shares of every joint account that he or she owns at the same insured bank are added together and the total is insured up to $250,000" (FDIC, Your Insured Deposits). Trust and POD coverage multiplies the number of owners by the number of eligible beneficiaries by $250,000, capped at $1,250,000 per trust owner across all trust accounts, under the rule that has governed both revocable and most irrevocable trust deposits since April 1, 2024. For a POD beneficiary to count, it must be "A natural living person (human being); A charitable organization (that is recognized as such under the Internal Revenue Code); or A non-profit entity (that is recognized as such under the Internal Revenue Code)" (FDIC).

Do the digital-asset laws help with a bank account?#

Less than people hope on the money itself, and more than people expect on the accounts around the money. RUFADAA — finalized by the Uniform Law Commission in 2015 and enacted state by state, as in Washington's RCW 11.120 and California's Probate Code Division 2, Part 20 — covers personal representatives, guardians and conservators, agents under a power of attorney, and trustees, with the companies holding the data called "custodians."

Three provisions matter here, using Florida's enactment as the text:

A "digital asset" is "an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest," and "The term does not include an underlying asset or liability unless the asset or liability is itself an electronic record" (§ 740.002(9)). The dollars in a checking account are governed by banking and probate law; the online banking record is the digital asset.
The online tool beats the will: "A direction regarding disclosure using an online tool overrides a contrary direction by the user in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record" (§ 740.003(1)).
The fiduciary, not the password-holder, is the lawful user: "A fiduciary acting within the scope of the fiduciary's duties is an authorized user of the property of the decedent, ward, principal, or settlor for the purpose of applicable computer fraud and unauthorized computer access laws" (§ 740.05(4)).

To reach electronic communications, a personal representative sends the custodian a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate, and a certified copy of the letters of administration or other court order — plus, unless the user gave direction through an online tool, evidence of the user's consent to disclosure (§ 740.006). Proof of authority, never a password. Custodians may also "assess a reasonable administrative charge for the cost of disclosing digital assets," and may seek a court's direction where segregating assets would impose an undue burden (§ 740.005). That hierarchy is why an inactive-account manager or legacy contact chosen on a phone or email account five years ago outranks the will that names someone else — and why the email inbox holding the bank statements can be harder to open than the bank account.

What should I do about fraud and debt collectors?#

You cannot freeze a deceased family member's credit file, but you can have it updated to show they are deceased, which lets the agency flag the file and makes it harder for someone to use the identity. Contact one of the three nationwide credit reporting agencies — that agency notifies the other two — with a death certificate, information about the person, and documents showing you are the spouse, executor, or otherwise have legal authority to act on their behalf (FTC). If something has already gone wrong, IdentityTheft.gov is the federal recovery site, with printable checklists and sample letters.

Expect at least one call that is not real. The CFPB warns that scammers watch obituaries and call relatives posing as debt collectors, pressing for Social Security numbers or financial account details, and its advice is blunt: "Never provide your Social Security number, birth date, or financial account numbers to anyone unless you know who you're dealing with" (CFPB. A legitimate collector must be able to send written validation of the debt. You are generally not responsible for the debts anyway — "You're not responsible for their debts unless you shared legal responsibility for repaying as a co-signer, a joint account holder, or if you fall within another exception" (CFPB) — and "being an authorized user generally does not obligate you to pay the debt" (CFPB). For a fuller walkthrough, the CFPB publishes "Taking control of your finances: Help for surviving spouses".

How is this different in the UK and Canada?#

United Kingdom. "Probate is the legal right to deal with someone's property, money and possessions (their 'estate') when they die," and GOV.UK tells you to contact each financial organisation individually to find out whether probate is needed, because "Every organisation has its own rules" (GOV.UK). The Tell Us Once service "lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go" for someone who lived in England, Scotland, or Wales — but "You'll also need to tell organisations outside government, like employers and private pension providers, banks, and utility companies." Northern Ireland, which Tell Us Once does not cover, works to a guideline that where the deceased left "a small amount of money (usually £20,000 or less) in his or her estate, it may not be necessary to get a grant of probate or letters of administration" to withdraw from the account (nidirect). Two banks holding identical balances can therefore reach opposite answers on the same estate.

Canada. The legal representative files a final T1 return for the year of death (Canada.ca). Before distributing property under their control, the representative should obtain a clearance certificate from the CRA; distributing without one can leave the representative personally liable for amounts the deceased or the estate owed (CRA, Clearance certificate). Where there is no will or no named executor, individuals apply through the courts to administer the estate under the law of the relevant province or territory (Canada.ca, Estates and wills). Joint-account and power-of-attorney rules differ enough from the US that Canada publishes separate guidance on powers of attorney for financial matters and joint bank accounts.

How do I set my own accounts up so nobody has to do this?#

If you are reading this from the other side — as the person whose accounts would go silent — the whole fix is an afternoon of forms signed at a bank counter.

Name POD or TOD beneficiaries on every deposit account. This is the single step that converts a court process into a counter transaction. Sign the agreement at the bank; a will provision does not do it (FDIC).
Check whether your joint accounts carry right of survivorship, not tenancy in common. Read the account agreement or ask (CFPB).
Re-check beneficiary designations whenever one of the named people dies. There is no grace period on that side, and coverage can drop immediately (FDIC).
Set the online tool or legacy contact on every platform that offers one. Under RUFADAA it overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust, or power of attorney (Fla. Stat. § 740.003).
Keep an account inventory: institution, account type, and who is named on it. Small-estate procedures run on exactly this information — Texas, for one, requires "a list of all known estate assets and liabilities" inside its small estate affidavit (Tex. Est. Code § 205.002).
Do not rely on a power of attorney to carry over. It "automatically expires upon the death of the account holder" (OCC).
Do not write passwords into the plan. A password-holder has no standing; a fiduciary with letters does (Fla. Stat. § 740.05(4)). Record where things live and who is named on what, and let the documents do the authorising.

The last two items are the ones nobody can reconstruct after the fact, which is why we built Proceedly as a scheduled check-in that releases your encrypted handoff plan once you stop answering — held for a person you name, or released automatically on a paid plan. It carries the inventory and the location of the documents, never the passwords, because the password was never what opened the bank account.

FAQ#

Can I keep using my parent's online banking to pay their bills? No. The credentials do not carry authority, and a power of attorney expires with the account holder (OCC). Where benefits are involved, prosecutions follow: a New York woman was ordered to repay $95,961 in Social Security benefits drawn from her deceased mother's account between January 2015 and August 2018, and a Maryland physician got two years in federal prison over $517,000 in her deceased mother's benefits collected from 2005 to 2018 (SSA OIG).

The Social Security payment landed after they died. Can I keep it? No. Benefits cannot be paid for the month of death, so a July death means the August payment goes back, along with anything received for that month or later (SSA). If it arrived by direct deposit, ask the bank to return it, then claim anything genuinely owed using Form SSA-1724.

Who can order the certified death certificate? "Only certain family members may be able to get a death certificate when someone dies. This includes a spouse, siblings, and children. But anyone can request them when they become public record" (USAGov). Order from the state where the death occurred; the federal government does not issue them. The exception is a US citizen who dies abroad — the State Department's Consular Report of Death Abroad, where "You can get up to 20 free certified copies at the time of death."

How long do I have to wait to use a small-estate affidavit? It depends on the state: California requires at least 40 days, Texas requires that "30 days have elapsed since the date of the decedent's death" and that no petition for a personal representative is pending or has been granted (Tex. Est. Code § 205.001), and Washington requires 40 days (RCW 11.62.010). New York's SCPA § 1310 tiers run from immediate for a spouse to 30 days for other relatives to six months in the narrowest case.

Does a will override a POD beneficiary? No. The POD account is created when the owner signs an agreement with the institution directing it to transfer the funds to the named beneficiaries on death, and it operates outside the will (FDIC). The same override logic applies to digital accounts, where an online tool "overrides a contrary direction by the user in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record" (Fla. Stat. § 740.003(1)).

Am I on the hook for their debts? Generally not, "unless you shared legal responsibility for repaying as a co-signer, a joint account holder, or if you fall within another exception" (CFPB). Being an authorized user on a credit card generally does not create liability either, and no legitimate collector needs your bank account number to discuss it.

What if the bank closed years ago? Try the state unclaimed-property office or treasurer for the state where the account was held. "All states have programs requiring banks to transfer funds held in abandoned accounts to the state," and accounts are generally treated as abandoned after three to five years without customer-initiated activity (OCC). Free searches start at unclaimed.org.

Sources#

Account titling and consumer guidance

Deposit insurance

Courts, probate, and small estates

Digital assets (RUFADAA)

Banking regulator guidance

Benefits, tax, and Treasury

Finding accounts, records, and identity protection

United Kingdom and Canada