I know a family where someone died recently. He had been doing all the banking related stuffs for the family and nobody apart from him does not know anything about banking.
The family consists of mother(very old), unmarried brother, the person himself, his wife and his daughter(adult-married).
His mother, brother have joint accounts with him as 'Either-OR' and he is the 2nd holder in those accounts. There are some FDs/MIS where he is also joint holder.
Now the family wants to remove the late person as 2nd holder and add his daughter as 2nd holder in the same accounts(accounts of mother and brother). This to ensure the younger person will have access to account always. Also, those bank accounts are being used for receiving some govt benefits for the first holder(s), hence closing of account is simply not possible.
Now the psu bank(Union Bank of India) is saying, we would close those two accounts and open new accounts and would transfer all the funds in new accounts. They are denying removing the late person from 2nd holder and add his daughter as 2nd holder citing "as per rules".
I think this is some decent ask and should be same for all banks as this is kind of universal banking rule. Removing late person from 2nd holder and replace with someone withing the family - is there any problem with this ?
Is there someone/bankers in DD who can help me understanding the in-principle or technical problem here ? Else, what can be done before RBI ombudsman(I would consider as last resource).
Open new account with all those members and TRANSFER the funds in it.
Keep the old account but without anything in it for those govt benefits.
This should be simple right?😊