A beneficiary could be deleted by navigating to the ’Transfer’ tab, followed by ‘Manage Beneficiaries’. Here either select the three dots located next to the beneficiary and choose ‘Delete beneficiary’, or alternatively, select the beneficiary you want to delete and press on the bin icon in the top right corner of the screen. 

The Belgian state often tasks banks with collecting and paying taxes, as well as protecting its financial interest. Succession rights are no exception, as the Belgian state expects that the bank play a proactive role on the succession procedure by freezing the accounts of the deceased or of their spouse. This freeze is often very surprising and frustrating for the heirs, who have often not been made aware before being confronted with it. Let’s have a look at the situation, to better grasp it. What exactly are we talking about? When a citizen dies, banks are legally required to freeze his bank accounts and/or his spouse’s bank accounts. This guarantees the following: The heirs are protected against the possibility of one of them debiting the entirety of the accounts of the deceased; The interest of the Belgian Treasury is protected, by allowing and ensuring a correct levy of the succession rights as well as other open fiscal and social debts. The bank is expected to keep the accounts frozen until she is provided with the necessary information as per the law. This applies to cash/current accounts as well as to savings accounts and securities accounts (and safes). This is often a surprise, as banks are not only required to freeze accounts of the deceased clients, but also accounts of their clients when their spouses die. Absent any specific contractual provision, each spouse is considered the owner of half of the couple’s estate, including the own accounts of the deceased.  Which accounts will the bank freeze in practice? In practice, the following accounts will be frozen by the bank as of when she is made aware of the death of one of her client’s or of its spouse: –        The own accounts of the deceased client; –        The joint accounts of the deceased client with its spouse or legal/factual cohabitant; –        Own accounts of the spouse; –        Joint accounts of the deceased client and third parties; –        Joint accounts of the spouse and a third party; –        Joint accounts of the deceased client and his spouse and a third party. What are the consequences of this freeze for the (joint) accountholders? They will no longer be able to withdraw or debit any money from these accounts. The law nevertheless permits the bank to provide the spouse or the legal/factual cohabitant with a sum which may not exceed the higher of one half of the sums on the bank accounts or 5,000 euro (all banks included). Without going into detail, heirs should be wary of adverse consequences when debiting money above this limit. Is that all? No, the law also allows the bank to release the necessary sums to pay certain very specific costs, such as funeral expenses, or so-called “last sickness expenses”. Based on an invoice, the bank will then liberate the sums. Furthermore, the tax authorities allow the payment of certain expenses linked to the deceased’s last domicile, such as water bills, electricity, fuel, gas, etc, under certain conditions. How

If you wish to close one of your MeDirect accounts, we ask you to send this request by means of a secure message with as subject ‘Service orders’. We also ask you to mention the name of the account and the account number in this message. Accounts without a notice period can only be closed once you transferred the full outstanding balance onto an external account of your choosing. If you close a ME Savings Account or Fixed Term Account, we will transfer the total outstanding balance, including any accrued interest till the day of closing, to your Cash account. From the Cash account you can transfer the full outstanding balance onto an account of your choosing. Please do keep in mind that it is not possible to close a Fixed Term Deposit before its maturity date and you should take into account the following notice period for ME savings accounts: ME1: 1 month ME3: 3 months ME6: 6 months ME12: 12 months Should you like to end the relationship, you are requested to confirm this once your accounts have no outstanding balance left. MeDirect does not apply charges to close an account.

Yes, each customer can open one of each type of regulated savings account which MeDirect offers, either sole or joint. Currently MeDirect offers three types of regulated savings account. A first payment to the regulated savings account can be instigated from a bank account held with another bank.

We will send you an official account statement once a year. At the start of January, you will find this official copy for the entire previous year in Statements. Via the secure site you can also make, save and print periodic overviews with the dates of your choice. Investment account statements will be made available twice a year: at the start of the year for the past 6 months and on 30 June for the first 6 months of the year. Statements are available on the online platform. You can request a paper copy of your statements at any time but there will be a charge. Please check our   Tariffs & Charges. If you have a wealth management portfolio, the overviews of the executed transactions and last yields will be made available 4 times a year in Statements.

MeDirect does not charge any commissions, only a margin over the market rate: under normal market conditions, this is a 0,5% margin over prevailing market rates. In periods of heightened volatility, a higher margin may apply. In any case, the indicative exchange rate is shown on the trade execution page before the transaction is executed and the applicable exchange rate can be found in the trade confirmation.

  You have the option to transfer funds from your Me Savings Account via your personal online platform. It is important that you first open a regulated savings account. Once done, click on the “My Transactions” button and select the option “ME Requests” to transfer the amount directly from your Me Savings Account to your regulated savings account. Please note that the Me notice period must be respected, depending on the type of the Savings Account. During the notice period, however, you will continue to accrue interest on the total amount located on the Me Savings Account: requested amount + (possibly) residual amount.  

When you want to withdraw money from your ME Savings Account on your private website, you have to take into account the following notice period: ME1: 1 month ME3: 3 months ME6: 6 months ME12: 12 months You cannot withdraw money from your ME savings account without respecting these notice periods.

On the Home page click ‘Details’ of the ME1, ME3, ME6 or ME12 account for which you already submitted the withdrawal notice. You then open the information about the withdrawal notices by clicking the plus (+) sign. All the information is shown, including the due date of the withdrawal notice.