Consumer complaint received 2018-09-07
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX Bank of America Benefits Appeals Committee denied my claim for XXXX XXXX XXXX as Trustee of XXXX  XXXX XXXX , XXXX Thrift Plan Balance. 
The appeals committee reasoning ; the Bank of America has no record of my participation after my resignation date XX/XX/XXXX. Below is a history of merger/acquisition activity : Bank Merger History XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX was created in XX/XX/XXXX by the merger of XXXX & XXXX XXXX with XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX & XXXX agreed to merge with XXXX XXXX XXXX to form XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX   XX/XX/XXXX XXXX bought XXXX & XXXX/XXXX and formed XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX acquired XXXX I provided my final HR employee profile and my final trustee thrift plan annual statement received XX/XX/XXXX from the Thrift Plan Trustee as there was only an annual statement produced by the Trustee of the plan. The appeals committees claim that the committee has no record of my participation after my resignation and that I didnt produce any statements other than the XX/XX/XXXX is not an acceptable response. Their decision is based on the appeals committee not having any documents in their position to make a claim denial. I requested several basic documents that the appeals committee could have used in making their decision and have been denied, per the appeals committee they dont have such basic documents or any of the documents listed below : Per Bank of America Appeals Committee ; Upon request and free of charge, you will be provided reasonable access to, and copies of, all documents, records, and other information relevant to you claim for benefits. 
Requested copies of the following documents : 1 ) Copy of documents used to make denial decision dated XX/XX/XXXX ; example old plan records, distribution ( issued check, cancelled check ), plan termination, fully satisfied payout 2 ) Copy of XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX Thrift Plan termination 3 ) Copy of XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX Thrift Plan balance at termination ( terminated participant balance ) 4 ) Copy Committee documentation used to make decision to have no choice but to deny your benefit claim as there are no benefits owed to you under the Plan 5 ) Copy of the newly created Thrift Plan with XXXX XXXX XXXX , XXXX participants 6 ) Copy of XXXX XXXX XXXX Thrift Plan termination and payout notification None of the requested documents were provided. 

What is interesting, when I attempted to collect my pension owed to me from XXXX   XXXX XXXX, Bank of America benefits committee didnt have any records of my employment. They confirmed by employment and retirement benefit off my HR employment record I provided and used all of the salary history, eligibility dates to calculate my monthly benefit from my submitted HR employee record which took me 9 years ( XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ) to resolve ; received first pension benefit XX/XX/XXXX. 
If the HR employment recorded I submitted was valid document to substantiate my pension benefit calculation then it should be valid to substantiate my thrift plan participation. As this was the final HR employee record at resignation. 
As part of the retirement benefit calculation is a line for Trust Thrift plan amount which the committee left blank. When ask why, their response they cant find my records to determine any amount owed. 
Again there is no substantiated, basic, information to justify their claim denial. 

Summary, Bank of America appeals committee has denied rights to collect funds owed me. Due to Bank of Americas lack of proper records to substantiate their refusal to pay a prior employee their rights to collect their trust thrift plan balance.

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