Bank of America & settling an estate

[Dd852]

Just wondering about any experiences you have had with BofA (or other banks) and settling estates. My mother died earlier this year, and six months later BofA still hasn’t released her bank accounts to the estate. Is this normal? I’ve got an attorney working on it, and he is pressing, but the clock seems to move very slowly.

 

[ImThinkin2019]

I am the trustee of my brother's estate. He had accounts at Fidelity, Vanguard, American Century, and Bank of America.

All of these institutions have estate divisions. I sent all of them a copy of the will and trust documents. Got the money transferred within 1-2 weeks of sending the documents for all but American Century.

American Century required that I get a signed letter from the Court naming me as executor. That took more than 6 months due to the pandemic.

Did not use an attorney for anything except dealing with the Court.

If you are having trouble with Bank of America you might consider calling their estate division and explaining the situation. My experience is that they are very helpful.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

My mother had one small account at BoA. They were THE WORST, they insisted I sit down for a full-on sales pitch on why I should leave the money there, instead of just taking my paperwork like everyone else. They are too concerned with generating fees to bother with any kind of customer service, in my experience.

 

[tulak]

Who is executor?

I was executor for my mom’s estate and she had an account at BoA. I had no problems closing her account, getting a check for the balance, and depositing it into the estate account, which was a different bank (credit union). This happened quickly, within days/weeks (don’t remember exactly, it was over a decade ago).

 

[SecondCor521]

If I were paying an attorney and things were not going at the rate I thought reasonable, I think I would either complain to the attorney and expect them to fix things, or stop paying the attorney for that and take over the issue myself and talk directly with the BofA people.

Unless there are extenuating circumstances - like if your Mom's estate were really complicated, or there's some question as to the validity of her will, or there's a lawsuit or something - then I would really expect BofA to process the accounts in a couple of weeks or a month or two at most.

 

[Scrapr]

My mother had one small account at BoA. They were THE WORST, they insisted I sit down for a full-on sales pitch on why I should leave the money there, instead of just taking my paperwork like everyone else. They are too concerned with generating fees to bother with any kind of customer service, in my experience.

Same experience here. My SIL & brother were executors. They were wintering in Az & I was in Oregon. The branch would slow roll them & say they would talk to the estate division. (they wouldn't) Dad also opened a small checking account outside the Trust. We think BofA sold him this because he had Alzheimers & was easily confused. I tried to sign paperwork from Oregon while brother & SIL were in Az. . There was literally no way the branch could figure a way to do it. I ended up flying down so all three brothers could walk nto the branch

 

[tulak]

I don’t get the experiences here. As executor, you have full legal access to deal with all the accounts of the deceased. Things can get lost, delayed, etc, but if you present a certified death certificate and letters testamentary, it’s the same as closing a personal account.

As executor, I dealt with this in person and over the phone and never had any issues. I hope OP can get this resolved quickly, but as others have mentioned, if you’re paying for a lawyer to deal with this, I’d question what he’s doing.

 

[pacergal]

My DB and DS were co executors for our dads estate. Not a bit of problem with B of A.

 

[rk911]

Just wondering about any experiences you have had with BofA (or other banks) and settling estates. My mother died earlier this year, and six months later BofA still hasn’t released her bank accounts to the estate. Is this normal? I’ve got an attorney working on it, and he is pressing, but the clock seems to move very slowly.

my wife and i are curently settling her late brother's affairs. she is first successor trustee, I am second and acting as lead contact. we've been focused on clearing out his townhouse prepatory to a sale but we have discovered he had accounts at four local banks. we visited each over the last 10-days.

Wells Fargo: two photo id's, original death certificate (returned to us), copy of the declaration and signature pages of his trust, IRS issued EIN for the now irrevocable trust. took about 3-hours in one visit but his accounts were turned over to my wife as an irrevocable trust with the new EIN.

Chase: two photo id's, original death certificate (returned to us), copy of the declaration and signature pages of his trust, IRS issued EIN for the now irrevocable trust. took several visits as the banker needed approval from "the boys in the back" but eventually his accounts were turned over to my wife as an irrevocable trust with the new EIN.

Local Credit Union: two photo id's, original death certificate (returned to us), copy of the declaration and signature pages of his trust, IRS issued EIN for the now irrevocable trust. got a bit of pushback here...the banker actually wanted to know what we wanted to do with the money. really? i think she was new as she was furiously typing our responses to her questions to "her support staff" at an undisclosed location. eventually, i was able to speak with the support staff on the pjone who offered my wife two options...cash out or convert to an irrevocable trust with the new EIN and my wife as sole trustee. she chose option 1 but it took a second visit to make that happen.

Citibank: two photo id's, original death certificate (returned to us), copy of the declaration and signature pages of his trust. had to complete a small estate affidavit (5-mins) as this account was not titled to his trust and no beneficiaries were listed. she had a check for the balance in less than 30-minutes. Citi was the easiest of the four. They couldn't close the account and give her the $ fast enough.

this is my fourth turn as a successor trustee or performing those duties for my wife. the local credit union was the most trouble i've ever had. well, when her other brother died in '03 PNC Bank had to send our *request* for a medallion signature needed by Vanguard to a committee. that took 3-days. we didn't wait. we went to Chase and had the MS in 5-minutes.

on to the brokerages...there are at least three.

her brother did not tell her anything about his affairs prior to his death. we've discovered what we know by reading his e-mail and US mail. the take-away for anyone who has not yet prepared a plan for end-of-life...it's not enough to have a plan. you need to let your successor trustees know about the plan. our successor trustees are aware of our trust and our "Emergency Book" which contains everything they need to know.

 

[Dd852]

Thanks for the replies. The executor is the lawyer who prepared her trust and will - he is someone who has known the family for years and has a good reputation for elder law so I’d be astounded if he wasn’t doing it right. But it sounds like I need to have a closer talk with him about what’s going on.

 

[SecondCor521]

Thanks for the replies. The executor is the lawyer who prepared her trust and will - he is someone who has known the family for years and has a good reputation for elder law so I’d be astounded if he wasn’t doing it right. But it sounds like I need to have a closer talk with him about what’s going on.

My Dad had their estate attorney help him settle my Mom's estate. I distinctly remember a time or two where I wanted to turn the attorney in on ethics violations for neglecting his clients and not getting back to us. He's a decent guy and an adequate attorney, but attorneys can get busy and not get things done in a timely manner sometimes.

 

[RobbieB]

Me thinks the executor is hanging on to the account until the estate is closed and he determines the fee which he will draw from the B of A account.

 

[Sunset]

Ally bank has been very good with POD/TOD account paying out. After a second phone call to say the 5 business days was up and wondering what was happening, they transferred and fedex'd the money to the beneficiaries.

Chase bank was fantastic, at first the banker said we needed to take small estate form to a lawyer, but I pointed out he could do the notary action, and so we filled it out there and he notarized it. Money was transferred the next day.

GenWorth annunity was also good, faxed in forms, sent certified the death certificate, and they fedex'd the money 10 days later.

 

[tulak]

Me thinks the executor is hanging on to the account until the estate is closed and he determines the fee which he will draw from the B of A account.

I don’t think that’s allowed, at least not in my state (WA). The executor should establish a checking account for the estate and transfer/close all the deceased accounts to the estate account.

All bills, fees, etc, are paid from the estate’s account. Once the estate is closed, the estate’s account is closed, you go to the judge to close the estate/end probate and you’re done.

It’s not a complex process, especially if the assets of the deceased are straightforward.

 

[pb4uski]

.... her brother did not tell her anything about his affairs prior to his death. we've discovered what we know by reading his e-mail and US mail. the take-away for anyone who has not yet prepared a plan for end-of-life...it's not enough to have a plan. you need to let your successor trustees know about the plan. our successor trustees are aware of our trust and our "Emergency Book" which contains everything they need to know.

And simplify your financial affairs... why would on need accounts at four different banks?

 

[Spokane2303]

As successor trustee of my mom's living trust, I had good experiences with both Ally and Chase. Chase did have to get approval/review from the "boys in the back"; but, it was an otherwise painless event with all the proper documentation in hand. Ally was easiest with everything being handled by secure e-mail. Both might have been easier because we have existing relations with these banks, so we are known customers.

Dealing with the stock holding companies has been much more time consuming with their required Medallion stamps, various notarized statements, etc. Each one of these have their own unique version of forms to request the removal of a trust grantor's name and the addition of the successor trustee's name. After many phone calls, lots of time on hold, and multiple trips to the local bank for Medallion and notary stamps, at 5 weeks since mailing my first requests, I've successfully completed the trustee name change on 21 of 22 stock accounts..

I've done this all without having to engage a lawyer, as that was one of the initial goals when her trust was established 23 yrs ago. A lot of avoided "billable" hours!

 

[Sunset]

...... at 5 weeks since mailing my first requests, I've successfully completed the trustee name change on 21 of 22 stock accounts..

..

WOW...... seems like it would be good to combine accounts and simplify.

I thought I was bad with less than 1/2 that number.

 

[Spokane2303]

I agree!

My next project is to consolidate the accounts and simplify the holdings.

Two thirds of mom's holdings were inherited from her father (my grandfather), my grandfather's second wife (who had no biological children) and my step father. I think she just avoided dealing with them and their varying cost basis.

We even found "certificate" shares in her files for 6 companies, two of which declared bankruptcy years ago. The most painful being Enron, which I had recommended she sell 6 months before it imploded.

 

[MichaelB]

And simplify your financial affairs... why would on need accounts at four different banks?

Wait a minute. This is the forum with threads dedicated to finding opportunities to get bonuses by opening new accounts. No disagreement with a suggestion to simplify, but there are good reasons to have multiple accounts.

 

[Spokane2303]

LOL!

 

[CardsFan]

And simplify your financial affairs... why would on need accounts at four different banks?

Wait a minute. This is the forum with threads dedicated to finding opportunities to get bonuses by opening new accounts. No disagreement with a suggestion to simplify, but there are good reasons to multiple accounts.

Exactly.

In my case, not counting DW's individual accounts, I have 13 different accounts at 2 banks (1 B&M 1 on-line), 2 credit unions (for good rate CD's) and my brokerage.

At NFCU I have 5 accounts. Granted, 3 of them have little in them, but are needed to transfer money in and out easily.

And I am not even one of those looking for the best deal all over the place (though I DID do that with NFCU).

Would you sell a 3% CD right now, just to simplify?

I agree with the simplification concept. In practice it can cost you money.

What I DO have is one place where all accounts are identified, and this is accessible for DW, and DS.

I DO plan to simplify "in the future" but the future could catch up with me before I do it.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Drake3287]

If your attorney was that good, he would have had your mom add you to her accounts when he did the Trust. Now you're at the mercy of BofA's policies and state laws. I'm the Trustee of my late mothers estate and everything with BofA went smoothly because of this.

Good luck, being the Executer or Trustee is a hard, thankless job.

 

[athena53]

Sort of old history but when DH died in 2016 he had about $300 in a checking account at B of A. They actually contacted ME- I suspect they tapped into the Social Security death database. I found that the people in the local branch weren't much good for anything except telling me what papers to fill out and handing them off- not even a rote "I'm sorry for your loss"- but I had the check in a month or so.

They may be more stubborn about holding out on larger accounts.

 

[Drake3287]

Having just gone through this, it's all based on BofA's policy and local state laws. When BofA officially finds out about a death, they're required to do all this. It's not even a local branches option to do something differently, it's black and white.

I would assume all banks unfortunately need to be this way simply because of how laws have changed over the years over privacy and other various account scams. Unfortunately its 2021 and things have changed in the world.

 

[pb4uski]

Wait a minute. This is the forum with threads dedicated to finding opportunities to get bonuses by opening new accounts. No disagreement with a suggestion to simplify, but there are good reasons to have multiple accounts.

What's the matter with closing accounts once you've secured your bonus?