Lynn Brenner: Opening a safe deposit box after a death

My wife and I recently opened a joint safe deposit box at our bank. We were told that after one of us dies, the other person cannot open the box until he or she gets a probate court order! Is that true, or does it depend on the bank?

For all practical purposes, it's true. You may think you jointly own your safe deposit box, but you only rent it. The bank owns it.

Banks often tell customers they're legally required to seal a safe deposit box as soon as a lessee dies. In reality, New York law allows the bank to give your surviving co-lessee "supervised" access to it. But most banks prefer not to do that. They don't want to risk being sued for letting your co-lessee remove items he or she may not own. (Maybe you left those diamonds to someone else!) The upshot: Banks typically seal a safe deposit box as soon as they learn a lessee is dead.

Survivors must then get a court order telling the bank to let your deputy open the box and inventory the contents before re-sealing it. If there's a will in the box, the bank delivers it by registered mail to the court clerk.

As a workaround, some New Yorkers advise their children to get their will out of the box before informing the bank of their demise. But there are solutions that spare your survivors from having to hurry from your deathbed to the bank. You can leave the original copy of a will at your lawyer's office, or keep it at home in a waterproof, fire-proof safe. They cost between $50 and $200. They're all very heavy, but most of them aren't very big.

The bottom line

A bank safe deposit box isn't the best place for your will.

More information

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