[WSBAPT] Bank of America Estate Recovery Unit

Wed Jul 29 12:10:12 PDT 2015

Jackie:
Very helpful – thank you for taking the time to share this information.  I have a current probate where the PR is struggling with Bank of America on an account with only $5000 and the Bank is telling the PR he must present a Court order directing the Bank to close the account!
Kokie Adams
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From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of J A Cyphers
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 10:55 AM
To: Probate List Serve <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Bank of America Estate Recovery Unit

There have been recent posts about how difficult Bank of America is to deal with at a death.
I have a recent probate.  PR is in New Orleans where there are no Bank of America branches.
I just got off the phone with the B of A Estate recovery unit trying to get them to close the decedent's bank accounts and send us a check.
The total accounts do not exceed $7000, we have bills to pay and this is all the cash there is in the estate until the house sells.
Somehow B of A is getting immediate notice of the death (maybe they are checking the SS Death index??) and immediately freezing the accounts.

1.  There is an Estate Unit, P O Box 982238, El Paso, TX 79998-2258.  Telephone 888-689-4466.  We had received a letter from them regarding decedent's B of A credit and debit cards.  I called them a week ago and faxed them the documents.  So the first step is to call them, get a reference #,  and fax them the death certificate and letters testamentary.  Fax is 866-694-9046.

2.  Don't wait for them to contact you because they won't no matter what you put in your fax.

3.  Then there is an estate recovery unit.  Telephone 1-855-893-8793.  They seem to be the ones responsible for establishing an estate account or just closing out the decedent's account and sending a check.  It sounds like you can go to the local B of A and they can scan and send stuff to the estate recovery unit but otherwise nothing is going to be done at the bank branch.

In order to close the accounts, which is what they want, they need the death certificate and letters testamentary, which they acknowledge that they have.  They also need a notarized letter from the PR.
It can be mailed to Enterprise Estate Unit, Bank of America, P O Box 982238, El Paso, TX 79998-2258, or apparently can be taken to the local bank branch and scanned to them.

4.  Letter must state
        - Name of decedent and residence address
        - Name of PR, address, PR's SS, relationship to the decedent, and PR's telephone #
        - A direction to both disburse the funds and to close the account along with the address to mail the funds to.
        -  And include language that states that the PR is the duly appointed representative of the estate qualified to act and perform the duties of PR and to receive the funds under the applicable laws of the state.  (They have a form for this letter but she could not email it to me.  She could mail it which would take at least 1o days to get here!!!)
        -  Include the reference # that you got in #1 above.

Obviously if you want to open an estate account at the Bank of America, I am sure there is more.  Probably a visit to the branch is best for that.

5.  Once they get the notarized letter either by mail or scan from a bank branch, then it takes 5 days processing time in their unit plus 8 to 10 business days for them to close the accounts and issue a check.

Yep, they are very difficult to deal with.  I have not seen this problem with any other bank.  Was in Chase Bank with a PR last week on another probate.  Took a while but we were out of their with an estate account and decedent's accounts closes in about a hour.

Jackie Cyphers
Jeannette A. Cyphers, Attorney at Law
P. O. Box 908
Edmonds, WA 98020-0908
425-776-5887
fax 425-640-0814
jacyphers at gmail.com<mailto:jacyphers at gmail.com>

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