Lloyds Banking Group has apologised for failing to return the Wills of thousands of deceased customers to their families.
In some cases, assets were distributed to the wrong people.
The bank discovered earlier this year that about 9,000 Wills of deceased customers were not returned after they had been stored as part of a “safe custody” service, that was closed to new customers in 2011, according to internal documents seen by the Financial Times.
Lloyds said that, for most cases, the estate was not affected because the Wills in storage were outdated or another copy had been stored elsewhere.
However, it estimated that customers’ estates were incorrectly distributed in hundreds of cases.
For financial advisers, it is imperative that they know where Wills are stored and ensure that either backups are written or clients families are kept up to date with the wishes of the benefactor.
Fully compensated
Lloyds said in a statement: “Up until 2011, the bank offered a safe custody service where customers could store important items. In a small proportion of cases, it’s become clear that we did not trace a customer’s Will when we were notified of their passing.
“We are investigating each case individually and where appropriate making contact with representative of these estates.
“We are deeply sorry for the distress and inconvenience this has caused and will ensure that those affected are fully compensated.”
The FT said that the UK bank also found it was holding more than 190,000 envelopes of other valuable papers that it could not match to customers, a small proportion of which contained Wills.
The group’s rectification department began working to address the problems in July.
