(This happened a while back – just getting around to writing it up)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was a kid, my grandmother on my Mom\u2019s side started a small investment account for myself, my sister, and our cousins.\u00a0 It was a nice thing to do and when she passed away I transferred the address for the statements to my name.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t need it and didn\u2019t do anything with it – just kept an eye on the slow growth over the years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The financial group that managed it from Florida eventually suggested that I drop them and work directly with the investment company – Capital Group – directly. I made those changes and updated the address again – and got the online account access all set up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The University made some changes to the investments in 2022 for our retirement and the financial person I worked with suggested switching to a Roth IRA. I decided that I would start to pull from this investment and transfer that to the Roth – to give it a jump start. I transfered $6,000 from my checking account to the Roth and went online with Capital Group to request a distribution of $6,000 back to me. 6K is the most that I could put in the Roth at a time and I planned on repeating this next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got the check, took it to the bank, and deposited it at the ATM. Simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then everything fell apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bank wouldn\u2019t deposit the check and instead sent me a notice that my grandmother\u2019s name was the primary on the check and I was the secondary. They suggested that I contact the check issuer and have them reissue a check in my name only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was left with a legal copy of the check that was unusable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I called up Capital One and explained what was going on and asked them to re-issue the check. They were instead horrified that I had requested the check on the account that I hadn\u2019t claimed. I was confused since my name was on the account, I had online access, had updated the address and account information – and there was nothing in place to prevent me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somehow, though I am not a financial expert and no one had ever told me the process, I should have Known Better<\/em> ™.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would need to fill out a new account request form, a transfer form, and provide my birth certificate, and my grandmother\u2019s death certificate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I explained that I didn’t have the death certificate and would have to ask relatives or request it from the records office in Illinois. In the meantime, I asked if they could cancel the check and they were emphatically not going to do that. No reason given, just\u2026 no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I checked with my Mom and she didn\u2019t have a copy – nor did her sister. I went to the State of Illinois records office online and found the form to request the certificate. There was a fee, it couldn\u2019t be submitted online, and it would take at least\u2026 12 weeks to process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I printed and filled out the form, then sent it in with a check and settled in to wait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A while later I still hadn\u2019t gotten the certificate, but I did get a letter from Capital Group about the uncashed check. If I didn\u2019t act on that, it would be turned over to Unclaimed Funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I called Capital group and explained what was going on – I was waiting on the death certificate before I could complete the paperwork and it still hadn\u2019t arrived. I asked again if they could cancel the check to give me more time and no, they would still not do that nor give me a reason. They conceded that the funds wouldn\u2019t get turned over for at least a year so I did actually have time. And they wrapped up the call by telling me that I didn\u2019t need the death certificate after all – having no idea why someone from their organization would have told me that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seething, I hung up the phone and tried to plan a time to meet with the bank. One of the forms required a \u201cmedallion signature\u201d from a financial organization – like a bank – and a notary signature isn\u2019t good enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I made an appointment for later that week and gathered up every form of ID I had in my possession. If they wanted to see my library card, I would be ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple days before the appointment, I got the death certificate in the mail. I sighed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got to the appointment early and went to the reception desk to check in. Instead of just, \u201cokay, thank you\u201d, I had to use my phone to scan a QR code and complete 5 steps to \u201cofficially check in\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once that was done, it was 10 minutes past my appointment time before I was called to the office. I got out the forms, all of my ID\u2019s (including a passport, but not my library card) and explained I needed a medallion signature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The associate was aghast. Only the branch manager had a medallion. She went to check to see if the manager was available. I waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She came back with the manager who looked over the documents and explained that I would need my birth certificate, my driver\u2019s license, the most recent quarterly statement from Capital group, and my grandmother\u2019s death certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I raised an eyebrow high enough to dislocate my forehead and said that I had all of those things, but not with me. As we were setting a time to come back, I noted that I was only a few minutes from home. The manager had time a half-hour from then available so I headed home to eat quickly and gather that paperwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hurried back and sat down with the manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything seemed good until we got to the statement. I had pages 1 and 2 since that included the information about the account, but hadn\u2019t saved the 3rd page since it was boilerplate text. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That wasn\u2019t good enough – she needed to see page three since the other pages were 1 of 3 and 2 of 3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I got out my phone and managed to get to the Capital Group site and somehow got logged in. I navigated to the accounts area to see the last statement and got an error. I \u201chad requested that online access be restricted\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which wasn\u2019t true – but I figured they had flipped the switch on the account after my \u201cwhy would you do that?\u201d distribution request. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The manager suggested that we call Capital Group to see if they could unlock my access so I could see and show her that pointless\/critical \u201cpage 3\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She made the call, put it on speaker, and when it was answered she explained what we were trying to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The associate explained that since I hadn\u2019t claimed the account – which is what I was trying to do – that they couldn\u2019t turn online access back on without authorization from the executor of the estate (from 20 years ago). I asked if they could verify that there was nothing account-specific on the statement and they could do that – but that wasn\u2019t enough for the manager even though the group that had issued the statement was pretty clear on it. Audit purposes\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sighed – loudly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked when the next statement would be issued and mailed out. The quarter would end in September and the statement would be sent in October. I suggested that I could just wait for the next statement to be mailed to me and I would then have a complete copy of the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The associate agreed that it would work – provided that I hadn\u2019t restricted the statements to online only. I hadn\u2019t – of course – and since I\u2019d gotten the last one (well after the account confusion), I figured I\u2019d get the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We ended the call and I gathered up all the paperwork again. The manager showed me out and said I should make another appointment once I got the statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I went home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More time passed and the statement finally arrived. I opened it up, verified that it had 2 useful and 1 useless pages – then called to make an appointment to see the manager later that week. I called, this time, since the online options for appointment didn\u2019t specify the medallion\/manager option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the appointment, I got a call\/voice-mail from the manager asking me to call back since a medallion signature has special requirements. I called back, she was busy, and she never called back before the appointment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The day of the appointment I was running late – for me – and stopped at the outside door to try and do the \u201cofficial\u201d check in. I got 3 slow steps in the process when it didn\u2019t recognize my number and just gave up and went into the reception desk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was seated and waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The manager met me and I explained that I had been there a few weeks ago for the same thing but was missing a critical 3rd page on the statement. She remembered me then and went through all the documentation again – and then got out her medallion stamp. Which was simply an official pre-inked stamp – nothing fancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stamped and signed, then she went to make copies. I folded two small ducks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she got back she gave me back the originals and I gathered up all the paperwork again. I noted that I had my ducks in a row this time and said that I hoped that it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though I wasn’t really feeling optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went home and went through everything again – from verifying the address on the envelope to Capital Group to all the paperwork and the right copies. I also included a letter asking that the original check (including the check number) be canceled and a new check be issued. And that the online access be reinstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day, I went to the post office and had it sent by certified mail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And now I wait to see if this worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The best outcome will be a check written out to me that I can deposit. Next year, I\u2019ll request another distribution – this time, for everything left in the account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They didn\u2019t want to treat me like a customer and I was tired of being treated like an adversary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point, I\u2019d rather be neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EDIT: I got the check with 0.000% fanfare. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (This happened a while back – just getting around to writing it up) When I was a kid, my grandmother on my Mom\u2019s side started a small investment account for myself, my sister, and our cousins.\u00a0 It was a nice thing to do and when she passed away I transferred the address for the statements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2755,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}