Bulletin - April 1996 - Joint Bank Accounts - An Update

Who gets the money in a joint account on the death of one of the account holders? Does the joint account go to the surviving account holder? Does it pass to the beneficiaries under the Will or to the next-of-kin? Recently, the Supreme Court in Lynch -v- Burke and AIB plc introduced new criteria for deciding this question.

THE FACTS

Lynch -v- Burke involved the common situation where one person, in this case an aunt, provided the money to open a joint account with another person, her niece. When the aunt died the question arose - who gets the money? Both aunt and niece signed the contract to open the account with the bank, indeed, the niece travelled from Scotland to open the account. Although the aunt retained the sole power to make withdrawals from the account it was clear that her intention was that on her death her niece should inherit the balance in the account.