How to smooth the way as an executor | members only

YOUR BANK MAY DRIVE YOU NUTS Upon receiving my letters testamentary, I needed to open an estate checking account for receiving money owed the estate and paying its expenses. This was easy at

PNC Bank, where Mom had a savings account. Things didn’t go so well at Capital One, where Mom had bank accounts, a credit card and a car loan. First, the bank accounts. At Mom’s local

branch, an employee scanned the death certificate and my letters testamentary, and I filled out a form indicating how I wanted to receive the money. I was told that the estate department,

which had no number I could call, would be in touch. Then came weeks of back-and-forth communication: a request from the bank for more information or another form, my response, a five-day

delay, then another request. When, after nearly two weeks of silence, I still hadn’t received the money, I wrote to say I would be filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection

Bureau and the New Jersey attorney general. That got me a speedy — and classic — response: The check was in the mail. Nearly two months after my visit to the bank, that check finally

arrived. Meanwhile, the bank’s credit card department was calling me constantly about my mother’s small credit card balance. The auto loan was another source of frustration. At the time of

her death, Mom’s monthly payments were being automatically deducted from her checking account. When a regular payment was deducted from her account a week after she died, Capital One

reversed the transaction. I tried to make the payment with my own funds, but was rejected. As soon as I received my letters testamentary, I prepared to pay off the loan—which is when I saw

the late fees for the payments never made because the bank wouldn’t let me. With my record of attempted payment in hand, I protested. They removed the fees, and I paid off the car. (I

reached out to Capital One for comment. They now provide a phone number for the estate department, but only for help with bank and credit card accounts. You still have to call the auto loan

department separately.) LESSON 3: Keep detailed records of all calls and conversations with institutions you deal with. File a complaint with regulators if you are not being treated fairly.

UTILITIES AREN’T EASY EITHER Unless you are listed on an account, phone, wireless and internet providers probably won’t talk to you on the phone. They may tell you to go to one of their

stores and bring a death certificate and letters testamentary. Ironically, soon after I did that and got added to my mother’s Verizon Fios account, I went to a store to close it … but was

told I had to do that via the phone. Closing Mom’s mobile plan took three visits to an AT&T store and happened, miraculously, even though I didn’t have the account password they expected

me to know. LESSON 4: Get your name added to utility accounts so they are easier to manage. PAPERWORK CAN BE A PAIN My mother had a brokerage account at TD Ameritrade with a few stock

holdings. Transferring those assets to the estate was easy. Mom also owned four individual stocks that she had never put in her brokerage account. These took a lot more work. The

beneficiaries had to fill out a form with their tax information and address. I also had to obtain a “medallion guarantee” from a bank — a document confirming my identity and legal

authority to transfer stock.