A Relative Died With Money in a Jamaican Bank
Published by Whyte Law. About our legal guides
An old passbook or share certificate is a lead, not a balance. Months of court work can be spent on a holding that no longer exists in the form the family remembers.
Your grandmother's passbook turns up in a drawer in Ocho Rios. There was money in it years ago. An uncle remembers she also held shares in a company listed on the Stock Exchange.
The first mistake is to start a probate application on the strength of the passbook and the memory. The account may have changed. The company may have reorganised. The asset may not even form part of the estate. Months of court work can be spent on a holding that no longer exists in the form the family remembers.
The passbook is a lead, not a balance
Before anything is filed, we write to the bank, the investment house, the company registrar or the Jamaica Central Securities Depository and ask it to confirm in writing what it holds in the deceased's name, how it is held and what it needs before it will release it. Only a verified asset goes into the probate or administration papers.
Whether the bank will ask for a grant
Where the account or the shares are in the deceased's sole name and payable to the estate, the institution will usually require authority from the deceased's legal personal representative: a Grant of Probate where a valid Will names an executor, Letters of Administration where there is no valid Will or a foreign grant that has been resealed in Jamaica.
There are exceptions. A joint account, a valid nomination, a trust arrangement, an insurance designation or the institution's own small-balance procedure can change the route, and the holder will say which it is relying on.
Not every foreign grant can be resealed. Jamaica reseals grants from a Court of Probate in a part of the Commonwealth and from a narrow class of British court abroad. A grant from an ordinary United States state court is not eligible, and a separate Jamaican grant is usually needed before the bank releases anything. See Resealing a Foreign Probate Grant in Jamaica.
What the grant does not do
Banks and securities businesses each apply their own customer-verification and estate-release procedures. The grant proves who represents the estate. It does not replace identification, source-of-funds questions, tax information or payment instructions. One package does not open every door.
When two people have died
The registered shareholder died. The child who became entitled to the shares then died too, before anything was transferred. The chain now runs through two estates. The institution cannot be asked to register the shares straight to the grandchildren, and the first estate cannot be skipped. The chain of entitlement is mapped and the grants the facts require are obtained, in order.
An executor overseas can usually coordinate all of this from abroad. Read Probate in Jamaica for an Executor Living Overseas before signing anything.
The law that decides which foreign grants Jamaica will reseal is the Probates (Re-Sealing) Act.
Bring the passbook, the certificate and the death certificate to the first meeting and we will find out what the estate actually holds before any application is made.
Questions readers ask
Frequently Asked Questions
Will a Jamaican bank always ask for probate?+
Not always. An account in the deceased's sole name usually needs a grant. Joint ownership, a valid nomination or the bank's own small-balance process can change the route.
Can a United States grant release Jamaican shares or funds?+
No. An ordinary United States state court grant cannot be resealed in Jamaica. A separate Jamaican grant is usually needed first.
Does an old share certificate prove what the estate owns today?+
No. It is a starting record. The current company or its registrar confirms the holding and what has happened to the shares since.
Can the bank pay one beneficiary directly?+
Only if the account terms, a nomination, the grant and the bank's own procedures allow it. Estate money is normally collected by the executor or administrator and then distributed.
Personal guidance
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This is general information, not legal advice. Outcomes depend on the facts of each case.
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