Banks says POA not valid for a joint CD

[Hagrid77]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

My father lives in California, was recently taken to the hospital by his neighbors.My sister and I have POA and Health Care POA.Mother is deceased.

Gaining access to his bank accounts at 2 banks was not difficult,the staff was very helpful and understanding.The 3rd bank we dealt with is a two part thing.
He has an account with a financial adviser that is working with us and is helpful.

The second half is doing everything they can not to help. During the process of the first part we discovered a CD that has been sitting untouched continuously rolling over since 1990 which matures the 18th of this month. We were given 2 options,wait for the CD to mature then close it and open our own account or faxing our POA to their legal department and his manager then proceed from there.Chose the second option.

Followed up a few days later and was told because the CD is a joint CD under our moms and dads names(which we were not told on the initial visit) our POA has no bearing over the CD.The bank also refuses to tell us how large the CD has become.I feel if we wait until the 18th we'll be given another excuse to refuse us.

From what I understand once our mom died sole control would go to our dad so our POA would be in effect. Moms name on it or not.

I've also been told that what the bank is doing is against the law,once they had a copy of the POA we should be given access. True or not?

We feel like we're being given the run around for some reason. Our dad cannot live on his own anymore and needs to go into a skilled nursing home which is going to be expensive.

Please advise what our next steps could be,
Thank you

 

[anteater]

I've also been told that what the bank is doing is against the law,once they had a copy of the POA we should be given access. True or not?

Possibly. But, unless you are prepared to spend time and money to go to court, whether it is against the law is irrelevant.

Have you asked what it will take to get the CD solely in your father's name? I would think that presenting a death certificate for your mother would be sufficient.

 

[Hagrid77]

Have you asked what it will take to get the CD solely in your father's name? I would think that presenting a death certificate for your mother would be sufficient.

That is the problem. The bank says they can't put it in his name without him being present,my mothers death certificate won't help. See where I'm getting the run around?

Thinking my best option is to take his POA, Health POA,Will and my mothers DC down to them and start being a pain in the ass

 

[anteater]

That makes no sense. But then again, financial institutions (especially banks), POA's, and sense often don't play and work well together.

I think you have the right idea. The alternative is court to try to force them to accept the POA.

 

[Stephen1]

Before going to court I would suggest hiring an attorney and having the attorney contact the bank. The attorney may not get any further than you did but I believe it is worth a try and it may save some money.

My own story involves my mother's estate and a couple banks. I had more than one bank tell me the the Letters Testamentary naming me as executor did not grant me the right to access mom's safe deposit boxes because the Letters Testamentary did not specifically mention safe deposit boxes. For one box I bullied my way in and for the other bank I had a brother who was also a signer for the box. He had to come to town to close it. I've since repeated this story to a couple different attorneys who all said that the banks were wrong. But as you are finding out, they can be wrong but you still can't take care of the business you need to conduct.

 

[Dandy Don]

Please inform the president or the vice president of the bank about your situation and they may have the power to intervene over a lower level official who may not know what he/she is talking about.

If dad is mentally competent, ask him to sign a letter to the bank that explains you have granted power of attorney and also suggest that they can send a bank official to visit him in the nursing home if necessary.

Ask your father to order a copy of his prior years federal tax return from the IRS or from his accountant (if he uses an accountant to prepare his returns), and the return will have information about the CD since the bank was required to send him a form showing how much annual interest it earned.