B of A scum try to keep (STEAL) IRA money from the deceased - Bank of America Customer Service Message Board Discussions on Bank Of America Sucks : Official Bank of America consumer opinion site :

BofAistheworst

My wife and I had to pay $500 out of pocket for a lawyer just to get this lousy bank to cooperate with us!!

Within the past 2 years, both my mother in law and father in law have died. They had 3 IRA accounts totalling around $40K. My wife's parents had a trust done years ago. It enabled her to sell their home with no problems.

When we tried to get B of A to work with us to transfer the funds to a brokerage IRA account, we got nowhere. Every time we called, we had to talk to a different moron as if we were calling for the first time. Requests for a supervisor were handled the same, and sometimes refused. Every time we called, a front line scammer told us we needed to submit a different form or legal document. We have records of what has been given to them--so far we've faxed the trust document 4 times (once from the local B of A branch itself!) and still they tell us they dont have it.

I am an administrator in a large medical practice. I know customer service and legal paperwork can be difficult. At first I thought B of A was just going through employee turnover due to the banking insolvency crisis that is occurring in the U.S. I no longer believe that. Now I truly believe they wanted to keep jacking us around hoping we'd give up on the $40k. We still dont have it, but the attorney at least has a single contact and is making progress. Keep in mind my wife and I tried for over 2 months to resolve this until we were forced to pay for a lawyer. Once we get the IRA money transferred, I will be taking B of A to small claims court for the legal fees we paid.

B of A IS CLEARLY NOT INTERESTED IN YOU, THE CUSTOMER. THEY ARE DOING WHAT THEY CAN TO STEAL YOUR MONEY. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE THERE, GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF THAT BANK. HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE BROKEN APART INTO SMALLER MORE RESPONSIVE PIECES AND THE TOP MANAGEMENT WILL BE TORTURED AND VILIFIED.

B of A SUCKS !!!!!!

phillipshose

They are not morons just over developed sub-primates in suits with self proclaimating bank titles that allows them to be rude and controlling while they steal your money

ImABofAMgr

Hey, phillipshose...

When you made those comments were you sitting in front of a mirror or something? Why not ask for the details. Were the IRA's part of the trust. If someone renews an IRA CD and did not include it in part of the trust with the new accnt#..that could be part of the problem. The CSR on the phone may not know the customer has a trust. Its up to the customer to keep the accounts in the trust current. There are a lot of factors that can prevent a financial institution from just handing over funds of a deceased depositor. Good luck on your suit, why not just take a $500 bill and light a cuban cigar or your barbecue, I mean, it would go to a lot better use than a suit that will go nowhere fast because you dont have your facts right

Columbusohio

I'm currently experiencing a similar issue. My Father passed away in December of '08. He left a small amount of money in a BOA checking account. There was no will so I had to go through probate court to have the funds released. It took me 2 weeks just to get the correct mailing address to send in my documents. After BOA recieved my documents they sent me a letter saying that I had the incorrect balance which rendered my court docs. invalid. They kept all the paperwork including a copy of the statement and my fathers original death certificate. After a month of trying I was able to obtain a new copy of the statement in which the account balance had gone up 71cents. To this day they can't explain how the balance changed cause the account was a non-interest bearing account. They then claimed that they would now need hand written, signed and notarized letters from each beneficiary requestion their portion of the "estate", as well as ammended probate documents bearing the correct account balance. Still with me? It gets worse. I went back to probate court where I spoke with several judges. They didn't care for the way BOA was handling the matter so they appointed me 'commissioner' of the estate. The "commissioner" form is a court order granting me the authority to make inquiries, transfer funds and release funds at my discretion. Then I deal directly with the courts pertaining to distribution of the assets to the beneficiaries.

I then mailed my new documents to BOA via certified mail. A few days later I recieved confirmation that someone at BOA had signed for my letter. The next day I called to follow up. The women I spoke to claimed that they had recieved my letter but they still needed the notarized letters from each of the beneficiaries. I explained to her that the court order supercedes the previous requirments and that I'm now legally binded to oversee and ensure distribution. She put me on hold for 25min. so she could speak to the "legal department". When she returned she stated that my letter had been recieved but it was still in the mail room. She gave me the name of a supervisor who would go get my letter from the mail room and contact me the following day. The very next morning the supervisor called and left a message stating "we never got your letter, call if you have any questions". I called her and explained the situation. She had nothing to say. I told her I had a confirmation code from the United States Post Office stating they did in fact receive the letter. She took the number and hung up. She promptly called me back and stated they still didn't have it. Luckily, I had the judge issue me several copies of the form and I informed the women that I could fax a copy directly to her. She responded by saying "even if you do, I'm still going to put a 90day hold on the account!". I said that was fine and calmly asked for her fax number. The next day I faxed everything to her. The following day I called her to follow up. She wouldn't return my calls. At the end of the week I tried calling her again, still nothing. I then started at square one and spoke to the first rep. that would answer. After an hour of holds and transfers I was able to speak to someone in her department. They claimed she was out of the office and nobody else would "know my case" enough to answer any questions. At this point, all I wanted was confirmation that my fax was received. After another hour I was told that my fax was received and that it had been handed over to the "legal department". I then asked to be transfered to the legal department. Upon speaking to the legal department I was informed that there was no way of knowing where my documents where and I would have to deal with the original women I faxed them to. The same women that won't return my calls.

:roll:

Well! As I write this she finally called. Turns out her paralegal has been reviewing the court order for the past two weeks and she has been out of the office. "What? No courtesy call? I've only been dealing with you for 3months". To no evail, seems the paralegal is still not sure how to proceed. The good news? She was able to confirm the 90 day hold!

amylynn829

I am dealing with a similar situation except that it is with my own IRA account that I am trying to transfer to a credit union. Neither I nor my credit union rep can get info from BofA on where to send transfer paperwork since the paperwork that was sent previously has either been lost, misplaced or ignored by them.

I called yesterday to get information from BofA and "coincidentally" my IRA info has been removed from my online account information. I sent a message today to BofA customer service asking why it is no longer viewable so we'll see if I actually get an answer. I feel like my funds are being held hostage and I really don't know where to turn.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Amy

curiousas2why

Why dont you just call customer service 1-800-432-1000 and asked to be connected to CD/IRA. They can help you there or get customer solutions involved.

Teensy

This is case in point why I would never deposit funds with a megabank. :roll:

gasui869

Thanks for your answer.

CLB1973

The bank can't keep the funds indefinitely, it would eventually be escheated to the state they reside in after a few years of being abandoned. Unfortunately it sounds like these cases come from lack of estate planning which results in the beneficiaries going through hell to get to the funds. Make sure if you open an IRA to designate beneficiaries. A trust can't own IRA, but it can be a beneficiary of IRA, so fill out your documents correctly. There is such a thing called transfer of death for your regular non retirement accounts which makes transferring way less complicated. Then the poor associates at the bank who are probably not trained well in these issues have no ideal what to do with the more complex issues. I hope you guys did get your issues worked out.

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