What you note when the bank learns of the death

A bank often blocks an account as soon as it knows the account holder has died. PIN payments, transfers and direct debits then stop, even if a partner still has the card at home. That is not a decision about who inherits. It is how the bank prevents the balance from leaving before it is clear who may dispose of it. In the estate inventory you create an item for that account. You note that the bank has been informed, the date you did so, and that the account has been blocked since then. You do not write down what you think the bank will do next.

The bank then usually asks for a certificate of inheritance (verklaring van erfrecht), or another document showing who is authorised. Which document that is, and whether an extract from the estate register (boedelregister) is enough, is set out in that bank's terms and in the reply you receive. You do not invent that from a leaflet of another institution. In the file you keep the letter or the email in which you reported the death, plus the reply. On the item you note: requested on this date, reply not yet in, or: document received and linked as the source. As long as the reply is missing, the status stays open. An open status is a task, not a balance.

Ask the bank in writing for the balance on the date of death. That amount is the value in the estate inventory on the date of death. The balance you see in the app today is a different field: value now. Between those two dates, interest, a premium already collected, or a reversal may have shifted the figure. Put both numbers next to each other, each with the date it applies to and with the source. If the daily statement for the date of death has not yet arrived, you leave the field for the date of death empty and you set a task. An empty field is better than a balance copied from today's screen.

Write to the bank for each account, even if the same branch holds several products. A current account, a savings account and an investment account are separate items, each with its own number and its own reply. You do not invent which product rule applies. You take it from this bank's reply, not from a general story. A joint account can also follow a different path. You note that path only once the bank writes it down. In the note on the item you record the question you asked, in its own words, and the date. That way someone else can later see why a line is still empty.

Ervazo keeps the source of the figure with each item. The program does not value the account and does not fill in a balance the bank has not yet confirmed. A blocked account is also not tax advice and not a valuation of the estate. The figure on the date of death comes from the bank, in a statement or in a written reply to your question. Until that document is there, the line remains a task with a date. What the Belastingdienst later does with that balance in a return, you do not decide in this line.