Consumer complaint received 2016-01-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I am a joint owner on my parents account, they both recently died, XXXX and XXXX. I personally went to the Bank of America in XXXX, Texas XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX # XXXX ) to ask what the status of the account was since my parents passed away. I was told since my name was on the account I could do whatever I wanted with the account and they would remove my parents names. I mailed copies of both death certificates to BOA as requested and then BOA sent me a new signature card to sign so only my name would be on the account, which they now have. In the meantime I was paying any bills that needed paying for my parents. During that XXXX month period I personally deposited {$1000.00} of my own money and my brother deposited {$5000.00} to the account to make sure there was money to cover any medical bills. I was told I was in control of this account or I would have handled the final expenses and deposits differently. Two months later on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I see that there is a hold on the account of {$1200.00} and {$2200.00} - I called on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and was told they were holding 50 % of the account for my Mom and 25 % for my date to cover any interest paid by the bank ( total interest paid in XXXX was {$0.00} ) so this makes no since to hold {$3500.00} for interest paid by the bank. I was also told on this call that the account was not set up with Right of Survivorship which up to this point I had not been told in person or on the phone. Also they have now tied my hands to pay any unforeseen bills that come in. All of my parents other assets were controlled by their trust but because we had the understanding that this account was under my control there was no need to include this account in the trust or probate their will. We were utilizing this account for end of life expenses. BOA is telling me the only option I have to get this money released is to Probate their will just for this checking account. BOA for two months gave me incorrect information in the Bank and on the phone because I also called and verified if I needed to do anything with this account or did I have control of it and was told YES. The bank should allow any surviving accountholder to continue to use the account to transact business after the death of another accountholder. We have an executed will and an executed trust that defines all asset distributions for my parents estate that should be sufficient to release these funds. I took all the right steps to notify BOA and now am being penalized because of BOA 's misinformation. It 's obvious if they sent me an new signature card ( in the mail ) they acknowledged I was entitled to control the account which confirms what I was told by BOA in person in the Bank in XXXX and on the phone. I have a copy of the original signature card from " NationsBank '' from XXXX ( 20 years ago ) where the Accounts Names and Signature box for me to sign were prefilled by the bank. We had no idea we needed to mark any other boxes than what was prefilled by NationsBank ( now BOA ) 20 years ago. Current BOA forms make you initial that your are denying the Right of Survivorship. The fact that the account reads Name, or Name or Name would imply that any of us could have control of that account at any time.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation