[WSBAPT] Payment of Debts out of Primary Checking without Following Creditor Procedures

[Heather de Vrieze]

That has been my experience with BECU for years. I warn estate planning clients when I can that this can happen. It is part of their customer account agreements that they can pay off debts out of assets on hand in the event of a default, and death is such a default.

Heather

Heather S. de Vrieze
Attorney-at-Law
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From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Brent Williams-Ruth
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 9:37 AM
To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <WSBAPT at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Payment of Debts out of Primary Checking without Following Creditor Procedures

Good Morning Colleagues!

I write to share an experience that a PR of mine just had with BECU. *NOTE* this story ends fine, in that there were other assets, but just as a cautionary tale to anyone else.

Decedent had a primary bank account with BECU. They also had a credit card, a personal line of credit, and a car loan. When the PR went to obtain the funds from the primary account to put into the Estate account - BECU paid off all of their own debts FIRST and gave the remainder to my PR in the form of a cashier's check.

She pushed back and said - wait, don't you have to go through the notice to creditor's period and BECU allegedly told her that this was permitted based upon the terms and conditions.

As I said above, the estate is solvent and they would have been paid had they gone through the normal process - but this is the first time in my 6 years of independent practice that I have ever had this happen.

Just wanted to share with others.
Brent

Brent Williams-Ruth (preferred pronoun: he/him)
Attorney-At-Law

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