Consumer complaint received 2017-11-20
Company: STATE FARM BANK, FSB
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I walked into my State Farm Agent 's office with my wife and set up 2 individual HSA Accounts for the tax year of XX/XX/XXXX, and provided the contributions to both for the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. We did everything exactly the same. My wife 's account was set up correctly, and the funds were applied to the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. For an unknown reason, my account set up was not completed by the agent correctly/timely, and my funds were allocated to XX/XX/XXXX erroneously. 

In early XX/XX/XXXX, we went to our State Farm Agent 's office and informed him that only my wife received a tax statement for the HSA for the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. My State Farm Agent reached out to State Farm Bank, confirmed the erroneous XX/XX/XXXX allocation of the intended XX/XX/XXXX funds, and received communication back assuring him the allocation of funds would be corrected to the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. Based on this update, we filed our taxes and reported both HSA account contributions for the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. 

Now, in XX/XX/XXXX, we received a notice from the IRS stating that State Farm Bank *only reported one HSA for XX/XX/XXXX* ( my wife 's HSA ), and that we owe back taxes and interest for the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. 

We had to contact State Farm Bank directly, as State Farm Bank removed HSA accounts from Agent offices sometime within the XX/XX/XXXX year. We opened a research request with a State Farm Bank Customer Service Representative for the State Farm Bank Tax Research Team in XX/XX/XXXX, did n't hear anything for 3 weeks, called back, and 24 hours later received a call from a State Farm Bank Customer Service Representative stating that the State Farm Bank Tax Research Team denied the requested corrections. I requested to speak directly to the Tax Research Team, and was informed they do not speak to customers. 

At this point, we contacted our State Farm Agent, who is technically not allowed to work on the HSA Accounts anymore per State Farm Bank policy, and asked him to contact State Farm Bank directly and inform them of the error as well, speaking only about the actions that he was directly involved in in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. Our Agent walked a new random Customer Service Team Representative through my wife 's account, and they stated it was set up correctly with the funds allocated to the XX/XX/XXXX tax year. Then, when our State Farm Agent had him look at my account, that is when the Customer Service Team Representative felt it was pertinent to open a second research request. 

Now, two weeks later, this research request has also resulted in a negative outcome from the State Farm Bank Tax Research Team. 

Both independent research requests submitted to State Farm Bank Tax Research Team have both been denied by the State Farm Tax Research Team. When the State Farm Bank Customer Service Representative called and informed us of the second denial, they stated, " Everything was completed per our policy. By the way, you have erroneously contributed twice in XX/XX/XXXX. '' Now, we realize that State Farm Bank 's error is affecting us for two tax years. 

There are no physical State Farm Bank offices for us to go to. 
The State Farm Bank Tax Research Team will not allow us to speak to them directly. 
State Farm Bank will not speak to our Agent who handled both of our in-person original account set-ups. 

At this point, I feel we have no recourse but to submit our complaint to the CFPB to hopefully have another team within State Farm Bank tagged to review the situation for corrective measures. 

In summary, we submitted everything for our XX/XX/XXXX HSA set-up and XX/XX/XXXX tax year allocations to our State Farm Agent in-person, the same way, on the same day. However, State Farm Bank internal processes set up the two accounts differently, mis-allocating my XX/XX/XXXX HSA contribution to the XX/XX/XXXX tax year, creating tax issues for both years, and is continuously denying corrective action.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation