Consumer complaint received 2023-08-14
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
Hello. Finally looking to get some help after the nightmare this caused and continues to cause now. You see I inherited land before I knew it. Its in my name now luckily. But last year BOA and MAINLY merril lynch in grand junction. Didnt believe I was who I said I was. Well I am who I say I am. The only land I ever told them about. Oil producing land. Is in my name now. But I still dont have access to accounts my grandparents left to me. Because XXXX XXXX locked me out of them. And told the police I wasnt who I say I am. Well the case is over now and its been determined that I am still who I said I was LOL. My account was locked after my mother was tricked into signing a document removing me. After XXXX opened my trust account with a name I did not give her. I figured I would email first I spent a year being forwarded directly to Merrill lynch and being placed on hold until I hung up. XXXX was never supposed to have any control over my personal accounts ever. So Im still confused how she got it. Please help my mother and I. Get this fixed. Thank you. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Account number XXXX Please call XXXX This time line was written then. But it still stands. 


*My mother and I opened a Bank of America ( BOA ) joint account online at the end of XX/XX/XXXX. 
*Receive email telling us to call *We called and are immediately routed to BOA Private Bank *We were informed that we would have to come in and physically verify our identities, even though we had received emails stating the accounts were already closed. 
*Upon review of our emails, we have now confirmed the accounts went from processing, to open, to unable to complete the transfer of funds ( which we never requested ), to ready to use. All of this happened between XXXX PM to XXXX PM on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 
*We went to Draper , UT , five hours away, which was the closest BOA *When we went to sign documents, we noticed XXXX 's name had been changed. Immediately, we questioned and pushed back on this. 
*The two men setting up the accounts told us they had been left detailed notes and they were doing everything correctly and as instructed. 
*In hindsight XXXX this is where we should have demanded answers, but after continually dealing with varying forms of odd and illegal banking anomalies for over 22 years, for once the name change actually made some sense. 
*I now know this is where I should have stopped involving others in my finances, but at this point I had confirmed I was going to need legal help to probate a generational trust. 
*So I decided to keep a previously scheduled appointment with XXXX XXXX XXXX in the Grand Junction Merrill Lynch ( ML ) office, the town where I lived. 
*By this point I was already noticing many odd things : ~My name being changed ~The accounts said they were opened in Iowa ~Being told the accounts were XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX went on her mother 's BOA bank account in XXXX, following her father 's death. 
XXXX XXXX that account during the probate process, following her mother 's death in XXXX. 
XXXX XXXX another BOA account in XXXX when she moved to XXXX XXXX 
~None of which add up to 33 years of accounts. 
XXXX went to the meeting with XXXX at ML. The initial meeting went really well, because I had ample documentation to support what I was telling them. I now have even more supporting documents. 
*We were completely upfront and honest with XXXX about BOA changing XXXX XXXX name. When deciding which name to use, XXXX 's birth name or the XXXX BOA gave him, XXXX said 'my grandpa did not teach me to lie and I am here because I told the truth when opening the BOA accounts. The system did it on its own. ' It was XXXX that decided to use the name BOA had given XXXX. Even though she made multiple copies of our government issued IDs, that state our legal government names, which is XXXX 's name that I gave him at birth. 
XXXX immediately got to work and made her first attempt at getting us to sign a Power of Attorney ( POA ). 
*By the second week I could tell something was off. But I gave XXXX the benefit of the doubt, because of the uniqueness of my situation. 
*Due to the growing need of legal services, XXXX recommended that we open a trust. At this point, I still believed that ML was trying to help. Based on basic math regarding the North Dakota ( ND ) oil lease documentation, we signed paperwork to open a {$50000.00} trust. 
*Two-three weeks passed and the trust still hadn't been opened. XXXX informed us that her manager didn't understand why we would only want a XXXX trust, when our verifiable net worth was at least XXXX XXXX. 
*This is the first time anyone had given us information regarding our net worth. I wasn't shocked, because I had done the basic math on just the ND trust and that amount is before inflation and other factors, essentially left in a grandfathered state. 
*By this time I was getting irritated because I had specifically told XXXX I didn't want her manager involved in our accounts at all. I was getting bad vibes from XXXX and pretty much the rest of the GJ ML team. But I knew I needed the trust open, so after looking at what would be needed to purchase a home, car, our bills, and get ourselves settled and secure for what looked like a long legal process, at the direction of ML we agreed to adjust the trust amount to XXXX XXXX, rather than the XXXX. With this adjustment ML finally opened the trust. 
*During this entire process XXXX continued to pressure us to sign a POA. 
*Due to my growing suspicions and lack of communication from XXXX XXXX following the signing of the trust, I decided to go on my annual birthday trip to XXXX XXXX XXXX My main goal was to physically go into a BOA in a different state. 
*This trip proved to be extremely enlightening. I spoke with several BOA 's in XXXX XXXX, Arizona, and California, all of them outside of the Colorado banking region. It took time, but most banks were able to give me a little insight on how to operate my BOA checking and saving accounts. Ultimately I figured out the accounts and they worked properly for 2, maybe 3 days at the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX. 
*Immediately once I had figured out how the accounts worked, I contacted XXXX and informed her that only I ( XXXX ) could have access to the accounts. This conversation was done in a very professional manner. I asked XXXX to remove herself from all the accounts and told her we would reevaluate our business relationship when things had settled down. We had had similar conversations multiple times, because of my distrust of banks and not knowing how the accounts worked yet. 
*Since I was still out of town, XXXX set up an appointment for my mom to come in and sign the papers removing XXXX from our accounts as we had requested. 
*At this point my accounts were still positive. The only reason they were dipped in the red is because a Credit Union continued to process checks and place holds on checks that were not written to them. Because they couldn't see info due to redactions. 
*With the meeting between my mom and XXXX scheduled, I decided to go ahead and enjoy my birthday. Mainly because XXXX had warned it would take some time get her off the accounts because it was a process. 
XXXX tricked my mom into signing a paper removing XXXX XXXX online access to the accounts, instead of removing her. My mom questioned XXXX about the wordage on the form, but XXXX assured her this is what was needed to begin the process. 
*At this time, I wasn't aware I had already lost access to my accounts. My BOA accounts were no longer branded BOA, but rather branded ML, which they had been for a while. I, along with several bankers in XXXX XXXX, were livid with the actions that XXXX and the ML team were taking. The bankers said what ML had done was illegal, but they didn't have the ability to stop them. This ultimately left me homeless from my hotel, because not only did this lock the BOA accounts, it locked all of my accounts. 
*Eventually I made it home with XXXX help, food, or money on XX/XX/XXXX. Because of what XXXX had told me, I was still under the impression that the accounts were just transitioning back to BOA, after ML had wrongly acquired them. And that they would start working again properly in XXXX days. 
*So I hit the ground running. I proceeded to find a home. I had already spoken with XXXX about the townhomes prior to my XXXX XXXX trip, believing them to be good investment property for rental purposes. It was only because of the continued banking issues, that the townhomes ever needed to be used as a temporary home. 
*Because I still did not have access to the accounts, and BOA still showed XXXX as my contact, I sent her the house contracts for her to process payment for the townhomes. 
*The escrow process continues and I show up at closing, on XX/XX/XXXX, only to find out nothing had been handled. 
*At this time it didn't matter if I called BOA or ML, I was always routed directly to XXXX XXXX Even if I called the general XXXX numbers, as soon as I gave my name the call was transferred to XXXX. She would not answer her phone and I was always sent to her voicemail or XXXX XXXX, her mgr. This went on for months. Even if someone from another bank called for me, they were immediately routed to XXXX. The last paper statements we received continued to show XXXX as our account XXXX. 
*Following the clown show during the closing, I decided to look at what took place during the meeting with my mother and XXXX XXXX This is the first time I looked at the paper XXXX had my mother sign. Needless to say, I was shocked to learn she hadn't removed herself, instead she had my mother sign to remove my online access. Which is not at all what either of XXXX asked for. 
*Needless to say this process has taken a toll on us, but especially on my mother. Because of this she decided to give me her Durable Power of Attorney ( XXXX ). I took a copy of the XXXX directly into the ML office. This is the first time I formally met XXXX XXXX, XXXX 's mgr. XXXX XXXX got in my face and rudely told me no one services my accounts there, and that I needed to call XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ). Yet, I had been informed by XXXX that the XXXX XXXX accounts had been closed months earlier. Needless to say I called ME anyway, and was immediately routed back to XXXX at ML. 
*If my accounts are not grandfathered then it would appear that BOA has broken not one, but many laws pertaining to the Bank Secrecy Act. 
*With the exception of a couple of days in XXXX, we have not had access or control of the BOA accounts since the week after opening them, nor any other accounts. 
*During this past year, we have been told repeatedly that we needed to verify our IDs. We have done this in several states. I have verified in Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. My mother has in Utah and Georgia. 
XXXX always used my birth name on my current government ID, as does my mother. And even though the accounts are under the name BOA assigned me, I get verified. 
*You might be asking yourself why it has taken me until XXXX of XXXX to call, it didn't. I spent the last year doing everything I could to get this fixed, while constantly having to deal with the fallout of what it has caused. And quite honestly, I had to calm down and get back to a place where I know that the person on the other end of this phone is probably seeing this for the very first time. I have over 22 years of experience with this, because I have been dealing with banking issues caused by this in one way or another since my late teens. I had to get back to a place of calm, so instead of getting angry, we can get some solutions.

*Because of these issues we decided to revisit our relationship with BOA throughout the years, as we now see this did not start in XXXX of XXXX, when BOA closed my accounts in XXXX, falsely saying it was per XXXX XXXX request. Also, XXXX 's accounts were closed in XXXX without his request. Creating non-unique problems every time.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation