Consumer complaint received 2015-07-25
Product: Bank account or service — Other bank product/service
Issue: Deposits and withdrawals — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

My dad passed away XXXX XXXX, 2015. When the death certificate arrived in early XXXX, I took a copy of it and my dad 's trust to the Bank of America branch in XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX where he banked, to start the process of obtaining the funds in his IRA. They made copies of the docs, told me that everything is handled by the Enterprise Estate Unit ( EEU ), gave me the phone # of the EEU, & said I should be hearing from them in a couple of weeks, that the EEU would send me a copy of the Beneficiary Election Distribution ( BDE ) form for me to designate how I wanted to receive the funds. If I did n't hear from them in a few weeks I should call them. On XXXX XXXX I had not heard anything so I called the EEU and spoke to XXXX XXXX. She looked up my dad 's account # and said they did not have any of the docs.She was very helpful and called the branch for me and found out the branch had never forwarded the docs and had purged their files at the end of the month, so I had to go back down to the branch and do it all again. This time I asked to see the Assistant Manager, XXXX, who was very helpful, she scanned in the docs again and said she would escalate the case. She told me when I received the BDE form from the EEU I could bring it into the branch and they would scan it in for me. On XXXX XXXX I had not received anything from EEU so I called them and was told a letter went out XXXX XXXX requesting more info. She said she could n't tell me what kind of info. the letter requested, only that it went out. On XXXX I still had n't received anything so I called EEU again. This time I was transferred to the IRA Department and spoke to XXXX, a Supervisor. He was also very helpful, but told me they were waiting for me to send in the completed BDE form, that they do not send out the BDE forms, that they are available either in the branch or online. He kindly guided me to the website where I found the BDE form online. By this time I had returned to XXXX where I live so I mailed the completed BDE form, rather than taking it into the branch to be scanned in on XXXX XXXX, 2015. On XXXX XXXX I had still not received any correspondence so I called the EEU again and was transferred to the Retirement Help Desk and spoke with XXXX. He said his records showed all docs had been received, and he did n't know why I had n't received the funds yet, but he would put in a work order to expedite the case. On XXXX XXXX I received a letter from B of A addressed to my dad dated XXXX XXXX asking him to designate a primary beneficiary. I also received a letter from B of A addressed to me dated XXXX XXXX that B of A had received notice of my dad 's passing, that I was the designated beneficiary, and that I needed to fill out the enclosed BDE form. On XXXX XXXX I called the IRA Help Desk, spoke to XXXX again, and was told the BDE form I sent in on XXXX XXXX had never been received. He did not mention this to me on XXXX XXXX. He was helpful and gave me his fax # and extension. Although every individual I have spoken to has been courteous and helpful, the entire system is broken. It should not take XXXX months to receive funds from my deceased dad 's IRA. B of A has lost my documents XXXX, and given me erroneous info. time after time. I do n't know if they are incompetent, or are stalling on purpose to keep the funds in the bank longer.