Consumer complaint received 2023-05-08
Company: BREMER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: SD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Can't close your account

Complaint:
My mother owned life insurance policies on my grandmother. My mother predeceased my grandmother though. Bremer Bank assumed Personal Representative and Trustee for my mother after she died, even though they are not a named successor in either capacity. Bremer Bank then went and changed the ownership and beneficiary to themselves instead of me, the sole heir and beneficiary to everything for my mother. After becoming owners and beneficiaries to the policies, Bremer Bank held onto to the policies and refused to change the ownership to me, the sole heir and beneficiary. 18 months go by and my grandmother then passes away. So now Bremer Bank received XXXX XXXX in life insurance proceeds that should have went to me instead. Bremer Bank and their attorneys at XXXX XXXX XXXX have been sucking the money dry from the account. I have only received one check from Bremer Bank for XXXX dollars. There is still XXXX XXXX unaccounted for and Bremer Bank is now claiming the balance is down to XXXX XXXX dollars. A Judge literally gave an order approving all accounting and plan of distribution exactly a year ago now, yet they are still withholding the funds from me. XXXX XXXX XXXX charges over XXXX dollars a month on a lot of occasions. Their average monthly invoice is probably around XXXX dollars. I don't even understand what they could possibly be charging for. To make matters worse, XXXX XXXX XXXX is the law firm that handled all of my mother 's estate planning, dating back almost 20 years. Yet after my mother passed away, they made sure to inform me a few dozen times that they do not represent me and they will not represent me either. I wanted answers to this stuff and nobody was answering me. So my last resort was to get in contact with the individual that was appointed Personal Representative for my mother 's estate on behalf of Bremer Bank. When I drove to the address that XXXX XXXX has listed on the Application for Appointment of Personal Representative, it turns out that the address is fake. A few suites down from the fake address is the address for XXXX XXXX XXXX though. Ironic. After I confronted XXXX XXXX XXXX and Bremer Bank about the fake address for the Personal Representative, the entire administration for my mother 's estate and trust, which consists of lawyers from XXXX XXXX XXXX and bankers from Bremer Bank, all decided to file XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  essentially completely preventing me from obtaining any information and assuring that the funds can keep getting drained for an indefinite amount of time. There is one Judge in XXXX XXXX that handled everything. The probate case naming the fake person with the fake address as Personal Representative, the civil case for the trust approval items, and the XXXX 's. All of them were handled by the same Judge. This was the first time that this Judge has ever handled a Trust case too. I did not even know that they took XXXX 's out against me until I attended a hearing and the attorneys at XXXX XXXX XXXX and the Judge brought it up like I should know somehow. Then I found out that everyone used an address for me where I lived 20 years ago, and only for about 6 total months. They ensured that I would not be served the XXXX 's and made to look bad in Court. You'd think that if someone felt threatened or that they were being harassed, that the first measure they should take would be to tell that person to stop harassing. But they didn't do that because I didn't harass them. They just didn't want to answer me when I ask them where my money is.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation