Opening a Safe Deposit Box in New York After Death
When someone dies who has left a safe deposit box in the State of New York, usually the bank or financial institution will not allow anyone to access the safe deposit box until the Surrogate’s Court issues an Order To Examine Safe Deposit Box. I have had clients utilize a Petition to Open a Safe Deposit Box when searching for an original will required for probate, or alternatively, when there may not be a need for probate and the client may not want to open up an estate until the safe deposit box has been fully inventoried to ensure if probate is actually necessary or not.
NY SCPA § 2003 deals directly with this issues, and after the proper Petition has been filed with the appropriate Surrogate’s Court by someone with standing, the Court will usually allow the Safe Deposit Box to be inventoried in order to search for an original last will and testament or other such valuable items.
These Petitions are “ex-parte” meaning that the service upon all interested parties is usually not required, but this is because these applications are inherently restrictive in nature: the only relief they grant is to allow a party to inventory the box, it does not grant the power to actually take anything out of the box.
That statue further authorizes such applying individual “to examine and make copies of, in the presence and under the supervision of an officer of the company, bank, corporation or firm, any paper or papers found in said safe deposit box or boxes bearing upon the desire of the deceased as to the disposal of his remains, or deed to a cemetery plot, or proof of membership in a burial society.”
If a purported will is found, those documents are supposed to be sent to the Court of the Clerk, usually the local Surrogate’s Court. If “a deed to the burial plot or a policy of insurance be found” that is supposed to be delivered “to the clerk of the court, personally or by registered mail as directed by the court or the deed to the person designated in the order or the policy of insurance to the beneficiary named therein”
Sometimes banks are not entirely familiar with the statute or just get the application of the Order or statute wrong. Sometimes folks have problems with the entire process. I’d imagine this is mostly because these are not super frequent events at financial institutions.
If something of value is found in a safe deposit box, the bank will usually re-secure those items until Letters are issued by the Surrogate’s Court until either an executor or administrator is appointed to gather that item or items.