My father died in September.in October I was appointed Personal Representative of his estate by the probate court of the county in which he resided. Upon his death I also became the sole successor Trustee of a family trust my parents established in the early 1990s.
Immediately following my appointment as Personal Rep, I went to the Magnolia branch of US Bank in Seattle order to close my father's checking account, and money market savings account, IRA/CD accounts, and transfer the funds in these accounts into an estate account in order to handle these funds until completion of probate proceedings.
Bank employees were able to expeditiously close the checking and savings accounts, but after making a total of NINE trips to two different branches of US Bank in Seattle, and spending in excess of eight hours during these branch visits over a period of six months discussing this problem with several different employees in person and on the telephone, US Bank has steadfastly refused to close the IRA account and place the funds in the estate account. At no time that I have queried any of these employees about this has any US Bank employee, including the current and former managers of the branch at which I established the estate account, been able to explain to me the reason (s) for the long delay in completing this simple transaction.
I have provided the following information to the Magnolia branch of US Bank:
Proof of my identity in the form of my driver's license
My social security number
The tax ID number of the estate
Letters testamentary from the probate court that appointed me as Personal Representative
The court document that recognizes me as the sole Trustee of the family trust that owns the IRA
Not one, but TWO copies of the family trust document, which was signed and notarized in 1993 (bank employees lost the first copy I furnished them)
The form I signed requesting that the IRA account be closed and the funds transferred into the estate account
I also have in my possession a Xerox copy of the fax transmission cover sheet used to fax the trust document (for the second time) to US Bank's Trust Department. I would like to point out that US Bank does not at this time, and has never in any way controlled or managed this family trust.
Probate will soon draw to a close, and I urgently need to get this matter resolved. I must close this IRA account not only in order to carry out my fiduciary responsibilities as Personal Representative of the estate and Trustee of the family trust, but also to comply with an overdue IRS mandate for my late father to withdraw funds from the IRA on an annual basis. I have no idea how much longer how much longer I will have to wait to resolve this issue. At this point my only recourse left is to request assistance from the Attorney General of my state and banking regulatory agencies.in the end I might have to hire a lawyer.
I would strongly advise anyone thinking about opening up a bank account to check into the customer service track record of various banks, and select one with a good customer service track record. With all the problems that banks are having these days, the last thing bank customers need is to lose control over their financial assets.
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