Let me start out by saying that I now have my money. I am not going to say what bank it was as this all worked out. That said, there were a couple of mistakes make by the bank. On the other hand, the banker who helped me get this straightened out was incredibly awesome and did a wonderful job.
So, this all ended up being complicated. We were moving into our new house and there was a branch of the bank nearby so I stopped by there. I told the banker that I had gone in to a different branch to get paid on my mom's account that was payable on death to me (FWIW, I always used the full terms payable on death and power of attorney -- some of the bankers used POD and POA but that wasn't how I termed it at the time).
I told him that the banker at the other branch basically said I needed to go through probate if the amount was above a certain amount. This new banker immediately interrupted and said that was wrong. It doesn't matter how large the account is if it is payable on death.
He then looked up the account. And - the first mystery was solved. The account was shown as being in my mom's name. Then the next line had my name with POA typed after it. He said that if it was payable on death then POD would be typed after my name. Therefore -- according to what was there on the screen -- the account was not payable on death. Of course, there was more to the story.
I told him that when I had gone in to use the power of attorney, I had specifically asked that banker if it was payable on death to me. That banker said that it was (this was not the same banker who had told me last week I had to go through probate).
Now here was where this guy really started working to figure out the problem. He asked me what branch I had gone to. I had gone to the one close to my mom's house mostly because it had her safety deposit box so I wanted to let them know she was deceased. The banker made the comment that at that branch they probably didn't see a lot of POAs.
While he didn't say it explicitly, I knew what he meant. My mom's branch is located in an area that, well, isn't very affluent. But, the branch I was at this week is in a very affluent area and they likely see POAs much more frequently.
He looked through the events on the account and he said it was obvious to him what happened. Basically, when the original banker set me up as POA that banker had my status as POA replace my status as POD. He said that their computer system form has a dropdown menu which allows two lines. Before I went in and was added as POA the account clearly showed my name followed by POD on the second line. That was just as my mom established it years ago.
But, when the banker added my name and POA, the banker removed the POD designation. He said it is possible to have both someone as POA and POD but this has to be manually done. You can't just use the dropdown.
It was clear that he felt that the original banker just didn't know that so when I was put in there as POA it replaced the POD designation. Therefore, when I went in and asked to be paid the system didn't show me as the POD beneficiary.
Of course, I immediately pointed out that this was a big error on the part of the first banker. No one asked for my beneficiary designation to be changed. The banker simply did it through error. I made it clear that I expected the error to be corrected.
The banker I was talking to agreed with me completely that this was the bank's error. I sat there while he did everything he needed to do to get me paid. I listened to him explaining the situation succinctly but completely to 4 different people. The upshot was that it was agreed to pay me the money.
I can't stress too much how impressed I was with this banker. He clearly understood my problem and he carefully went through the account and transactions to figure out the issue. He called all the people who needed to be called to get this taken care of and explained this in a way that made it clear what had happened. He very clearly advocated on my behalf at every step. For that reason alone, I will probably continue to do business with the bank.
On the other hand, there were some pretty egregious errors made. The original banker made a very serious error. In this case, I would have gotten the money ultimately but it would have been delayed. What I learned from that is that it may really make a difference which branch you go to. In particular, it is probably not a good idea to go to a branch with an issue that is not as likely to be routinely handled at that branch.
The other big error was with the banker last week. I repeatedly said to that banker that the account was payable on death to me so I didn't understand why I had to go through probate. That banker kept saying that was what the back office said I had to do. This was wrong on multiple levels. First, the dollar limit that I was given for POD was non-existent. What I think the dollar amount was that the banker was referring to was the amount an estate had to be to not be eligible for a small estate affidavit. Of course, that has nothing to do with any alleged POD limit. I think that banker was just confused.
The other issue was that the banker last week never once told me that the account was not payable on death to me. Had that been said, then I would have started down the path to figuring out what happened. (That said - I am sort of glad that didn't happen because I don't think that banker could have handled things as well as the guy I dealt with this week).
FWIW, as amazing as it may sound -- I really wonder if the banker last week even knew what it meant for a bank account to be payable on death. I wonder if that banker may have thought that I was using "payable on death" to simply mean that the account was one I was inheriting. But, I don't really know.
