Consumer complaint received 2024-04-07
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Company closed your account
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

My late mother had a checking account with Wells Fargo for decades. About 25 years ago, she had the account retitled into the name of my parents ' trust. Although the account showed the name of the trust, apparently it was not correctly set up and this was not discovered until after my mother died earlier this year. 

I am the successor trustee of the trust and I went to her XXXX branch to update the account to show me as Trustee, and the banker discovered the account titling was messed up. I spent more than XXXX hours in the branch on that date, and a couple more hours on another date, as he went back and forth on the phone with XXXX ' " XXXX XXXX '' attempting to resolve the problem. Finally it was done and I went back to using the XXXX account to transact the business of my mother 's estate. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Wells Fargo dated XX/XX/XXXX. The letter stated that something was wrong with the titling of the account but was very vague about what the problem was. It advised that if the problem was not corrected within 20 days from the date of the letter, the account would be closed. The description of the problem reads " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX name and type on the document are not consistent, resolve discrepancy. '' I immediately made an appointment for the next day and went to see a local XXXX banker in an attempt to resolve the problem. 

Unfortunately, the vague letter was of little help in determining what was wrong, and the banker spend an hour going back and forth with XXXX ' back office and neither could find any problem with the account or the referenced document, all were seemingly correct. I was told that everything looked okay and that I shouldn't worry about it. But I continued to be worried since nobody could explain what had caused the letter to be generated in the first place. 

A couple days later I contacted the banker at my mother 's branch to ask his thoughts. He found XXXX thing on the account that seemed like it wasn't right, and asked me to go in and sign a new XXXX form for the account, which I did the very next day. With that, I was told, all was well. 

The VERY NEXT business day, I received an email stating that the account had been closed,. No reason was given. I have since requested that the account be reopened but thus far I have had no response ( it's been a week. ) I believe that XXXX sets accountholders up for intentional failure by providing insufficient information for account holders or even XXXX ' own bankers to remedy a problem, ensuring that account closure will occur. This seems insane but it seems to be their standard practice. They send a letter essentially saying " there's problem, we won't tell you what it is, but we'll give you a clue. Unless you can figure it out, you lose and we'll close your account. '' The day after the account was closed I received a second notice warning of the potential closure, which of course was worthless since it arrived after the event. 

I am now left without a depository account for the trust and so far, a week later, I have no idea where the funds which were in the account have gone. XXXX ' actions have left me with no way to pay bills and no way to access the trust funds which were in the account. I have been a customer of XXXX for about 40 years and my mother was a customer there even longer. To be treated this way is inconceivable. It is now easy to for me to understand how XXXX has been found in violation of so many banking laws in the recent past, their systems seem designed to harm their customers and to provide no way to resolve a problem of their own creation.