How Do I Open an Estate Account at Ameris Bank?

Ameris Bank publishes no estate-account opening procedure. What its guidance does cover, and its estate services contacts.

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Estate accounts at Ameris Bank

Estate accounts

Not addressed in Ameris Bank's published guidance

What to know at Ameris Bank

Ameris Bank publishes no estate-account or fiduciary-account opening information: no product page, no FAQ entry, no fee-schedule line, and no public deposit account agreement whose terms could be checked. The closest primary-source signal is a single line in the Consumer Online Services Agreement making "certain fiduciary accounts" ineligible for external funds transfers — which implies fiduciary-titled accounts exist at the bank as a category but says nothing about estates specifically or how one is opened. An executor should expect to contact Customer Service (1-866-616-6020) or a full-service branch (AL, FL, GA, NC, SC) to ask; every process fact beyond that is unpublished.

Estate services: 1-800-375-4646View Ameris Bank's guidance

This guide summarizes each bank's published estate-account requirements and is not legal or banking advice. Requirements may vary by state and account type.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ameris Bank publishes no estate-account opening procedure, and its guidance does not state whether estate accounts are offered. Its estate services team can confirm directly.

An estate account is a bank account titled to the estate itself — not to the person who died and not to the executor personally. The court-appointed executor or administrator opens it to deposit money owed to the estate (final paychecks, refunds, proceeds from closed accounts), pay the estate's debts and expenses, and distribute what remains. Checks made out to "the Estate of" can only be deposited into an account titled this way.

The estate is its own taxpayer, separate from the person who died. Banks open estate accounts under the estate's Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS, not the deceased's Social Security Number. The free EIN application prepares IRS Form SS-4 for the estate.