Consumer complaint received 2024-01-17
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem accessing account

Complaint:
Weeks after my mother 's death, on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  I was contacted by XXXX XXXX at the XXXX XXXX branch of Truist bank. She called me by phone to request that I come to the branch with my marriage certificate and driver 's license to verify my identity, as the successor trustee of my mother 's account. I was home XXXX with XXXX so I asked her to please put the request in an email and send it to me. I told her that I lived in New York and would be in Florida a few days later for my mother 's funeral. I told her that I would stop by the bank to personally hand her the documentation along with bringing a copy of the original notarized trust with me. She agreed that this would be the proper identification needed. I subsequently missed my mother 's funeral as I was XXXX XXXXl from XXXX for weeks. I made a special trip to Florida to go to Truist on XX/XX/XXXX to take care of the rest of the details regarding my mother 's estate. I brought with me, my NYS driver 's license with my previous married name, my updated NYS driver 's license with my new married name, and both marriage licenses to prove my new married name. I brought a copy of the death certificate. I also brought the original copy of the trust agreement which was signed and notarized by both my mother and myself. XXXX told me that all of that documentation was not needed, that all Truist was looking for was the marriage certificate ( Showing chain of surname ) and my current license. Upon going to the bank, I waited over an hour for XXXX to assist me, as she was with another client. She knew I was there, and eventually handed me off to her associate name XXXX. He took the documentation, made copies of everything, and told me that he was going to have to send it to their legal department, because Truist did not have a copy of the trust on file. Apparently, this account was originally opened at SUN TRUST bank which was subsequently bought out by Truist. The day after I gave them all of the documentation, I received a phone call from XXXX XXXX, that Truist was now asking for a letter of legal opinion from an attorney. I was very annoyed and asked her why I was not informed of this information prior to getting on a plane to bring the documentation that she requested. She made no mention of an attorney letter, in her email or phone calls to me. I contacted my investment banker representative at XXXX XXXX and asked her if she had ever heard of this, and she said absolutely not, that the signed notarized document of the trust along with my proof of identity should have been enough to grant me access to the account along with naming me the successor trustee. I contacted the attorney 's office who handled all of the paperwork, and was also told by them that the original notarized copy of the trust was all that was legal and necessary to provide the documentation to the bank. Subsequently after getting no where with this branch I sent a letter to the main XXXX XXXX branch of Truist, sent them copies of all of the documentation and asked for statements and some kind of letter to be sent to the branch in Florida to notify them that I am the successor trustee. I received a package back from XXXX XXXX with the copies of the past two years statements and a letter stating that the file was transferred to the XXXX by the XXXX XXXX of Truist. I contacted that branch two different times and was told that they had no knowledge of what I was referring to. I gave them the name of the person in XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX ) who sent me the copies of the statements and they basically told me that they could not help me that I should try and get back in touch with her. I left her three voicemails and she has not returned my call. I called my attorney to ask him if he could help and his response was that he has never heard of a bank asking for such a request and even so, he would not even know what type of documentation to put into the letter that they would deem acceptable. I made numerous calls to Truist and was finally put on the phone with XXXX XXXX in XXXX who said she was the regional director for Truist, she told me that " any reputable attorney would know what to do ''. She was rude, unprofessional and quite frankly should not have any type of job in customer service. I am now at a crossroads where I am being forced to hire an attorney to verify my identity, pay money to him, to gain access to an account where I have the original copy of the trust. And the bank seems to have nothing. My accountant has told me that we will need the last 3-5 years of statements so that he can effectively do the Trust 's tax return. To date I have no communication or guidance from the bank.

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