My mother and I have a joint bank account. She passed away last week. I can pay the funeral expenses with that account right?

If you have a joint bank account, which means your name is on the account, you can do whatever you wish with the money. When my father passed away, I simply closed the account after withdrawing what was left. I did, I believe provide them with a death certificate.

I want to say that I would think that Funeral Homes are aware that it may be hard for family to get to money. Insurance policies take a while to pay out claims. My Mom has a prepaid trust with the funeral home as beneficiary. Not sure how long it took them to get that money.

Than you for your responses. I guess I will take care of funeral expenses then talk the bank after I get the death certificate. I’m hoping they don’t lock it down.

polar bear, I’m going to wait til the funeral and things are settled, and then I may find a grief support group if needed. Thank you for the suggestion, I really hadn’t thought of that. I’m trying to stay strong, I know I’ll be ok. I do have the support of my husband, but he doesn’t know what to do either, and other family are not much help. So I’m handling it as best I can.

Yes. Pay the expenses, THEN notify the bank of her death. You'll have to sign a new signature card and make it a single account.

My mom's bank locked up the joint account when they learned of her death from Social Security and screwed up a bunch of my checks. Fortunately, they let $3900 worth of funeral expense checks clear before they did that.

Quick suggestion if your are writing a check, date the check as written on the date of moms death and you do your usual personal signature on the check.

Just in case the account gets flagged, having it that date will allow it to push thru. Sometimes a bank will suspend an account till they get a fresh ID / SS# to attach to the account. Even if you were a signatory or the account was POD to you, bank will want “fresh” verification.

also get several death certificates.

and your moms Social security monthly income will claw back the payment IF mom did not live the entire month. Some other incomes do this as well. My mom had SS and civil service annuity, one paid on the 3rd the other between 3-5 of the month. Mom died on the 29th. Both paid the next week. Both did a clawback…. SSA did it quickly within 3 weeks but the other took abt 10-12 weeks. So you have to leave those funds in the account or it will go NSF and bounce.

my condolences on her passing. It’s going to be a hard a holiday season for you.Please try to take time just for yourself.

Thank you for the quick response,I’ve been panicking over this all evening as I’m going to pay funeral home tomorrow out of this account. I guess I should call bank in the morning. I’m trying to everything properly, but it’s just me doing this whithout much help and I dont know what im doing and very emotional at this time.

You are one of the account holders, so yes, that's your money, and you can use it however you want. Also yes on notify the bank of your mother's passing.

You can read some more about what happens to a joint account when one of the owners dies.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-happens-to-a-joint-account-when-an-owner-dies-3505233