Inheritance, wills and rights of surviving partners all operate very differently to the UK – in fact the whole subject is a mine field and potentially devastating with regards to bank accounts.

In particular one important area to plan for is that of Turkish bank accounts as any joint accounts will be frozen if one partner dies.

The account will only be reopended after a Turkish court has ruled that the partner is the rightful heir.

This process could take some time leaving the surviving partner having to deal with a money crisis, a Turkish court process as well as a bereavement.

So what can you do about this situation?

If you have a joint account and one signatory dies one option would be to go to the bank and withdraw all the money before you report the death to the bank asuming one signatory is sufficient.

Potentially that action could be illegal so it may be best to operate separate Turkish bank accounts and manage cash between the two.