E240 Inheritance Checks vs Wires

<p>Should executors send funds by check or wire? This could apply to expenses or payments to the heirs at the end. As a <a href= "https://anthonyspark.com/professional-executor/">professional executor</a>, I’ll explain why we almost never send wires, only checks.</p> <h2>Successful checks vs wires</h2> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11132" src= "https://anthonyspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Successful-checks-vs-wires-300x169.jpg" alt="Successful checks vs wires" width="300" height="169" /></p> <p>If everything goes well, wire transfers are faster (even faster than overnight checks). Wires are more convenient for the recipients since they don't have to go to a bank to deposit a check. Wires are more prevalent in Europe and most other countries; some don’t even know what checks are anymore. I haven't had anyone ask me to pay their inheritance by Venmo or PayPal yet, but I feel like that day is coming.</p> <p>Again, wires are faster and more convenient IF everything goes right. So, let’s look at what happens when something goes wrong.</p> <h2>Lost checks vs wires</h2> <p>If you have a lost or misplaced check, you stop payment. Then you wait and re-send the check. It’s not easy to do, especially for large sums like inheritance checks. But it can still be done.</p> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11131" src= "https://anthonyspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Lost-checks-vs-wires-300x169.jpg" alt="Lost checks vs wires" width="300" height="169" /></p> <p>Have you ever tried to reverse a wire?  During a real estate closing, we had to wire funds from one closing to another. There was one wrong number in the wire, and it was gone! It took about four days for us to come back to the table to finish the settlement.</p> <p>In other situations, it has taken months to reverse a wire. We’ve even had situations where the money has simply disappeared (neither the sending nor the receiving bank knows where it went).</p> <p>We had a case involving heirs in Africa who demanded a wire transfer o