Consumer complaint received 2023-01-03
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Money was not available when promised — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (OR)

My brother died in XX/XX/XXXX and I was named Personal Representative of his estate on XX/XX/XXXX. I received the legal paperwork on XX/XX/XXXX. Beginning in mid-XXXX  I made telephone calls to Merrill Lynch XXXX XXXX XXXX. ( XXXX ) to transfer my brother 's account balance ( about {$35000.00} ) to an estate account I set up at a XXXXXXXX XXXX branch. Attempts to reach XXXX were unsuccessful, because of being on hold on the phone for over XXXX hour. I eventually waited longer and was finally able to talk to someone. A list of several forms required to be completed was emailed to me, which I then filled out and sent them back to XXXX via XXXX XXXX XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX. The XXXX representative assigned me a case number and I was told the money transfer would occur in about 2 weeks. XXXX was contacted on XX/XX/XXXX, and I was informed one of the forms was not signed by me, so I mailed another, signed form on XX/XX/XXXX. I was again informed the transfer would occur in about 2 weeks. A few more weeks went by. 

XXXX was again contacted on XX/XX/XXXX, and I was informed my Letter of Administration I received from the XXXX XXXX was out of date and needed to be updated. This required a call to our estate attorney, who then contacted the court for another Letter of Administration with a current date. I received the updated Letter of Administration on XX/XX/XXXX. I was then instructed to bring the updated Letter of Administration to a local Bank of America XXXX, where the letter could be uploaded to XXXX. I was then informed by a XXXX rep the transfer should occur by mid-XXXX. 

A few more weeks passed, and I talked to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and I was asked if the local bank branch where the money was to be transferred to was in XXXX XXXX, Oregon. I said it was, but the blank on one of the forms I filled out asked for XXXX, not XXXX. This was my mistake, but I felt that anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of geography would know that XXXX is not a country. The XXXX rep said this was a common mistake. On XX/XX/XXXX, a XXXX rep told me the transfer was approved and should occur in about a week. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX told me the money was transferred on XX/XX/XXXX. My estate account bank, XXXX XXXX said the wire transfer did not occur. 

I contacted XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX, and was informed the transfer was made on XXXX, but the rep could not provide the Federal Reference No. for the wire transfer, and later said the wire was " pulled back '' but could not explain why. I asked to speak to a manager, but was told one was not available. Another call was made to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, and I was told the transfer would occur in less than 2 days. At long, last, the wire transfer from my deceased brother 's Merrill Lynch account was transferred to thXXXX XXXX XXXX estate account on XX/XX/XXXX, four months after the initial request was made. 

So, our situation is now resolved, but during this process, my sister sent me a XXXX XXXXXXXX article listing a few cases where Bank of America ( who owns Merrill Lynch ) has delayed by several months requests to close accounts of deceased persons and giving the proceeds to the heirs. This seems to be a systemic problem with Bank of America.