Every dealing with a company/entity as an estate executor is more or less an ordeal that takes way longer and more contacts than it should. Today I attempted to open an estate account and move my father's money from his account into it. You'd think this would be a common thing for banks; everybody who has an account will die eventually. I made an appointment on Wednesday, but apparently nobody checked what I clearly stated in the request, that this was for an estate account, because when I got there, I was told the estate banker only works on Thursdays. Another banker was just about to call me about it when she heard me arrive. In other words, she was going to call 10 minutes before my appointment. I give this woman credit, as she did her very best to get help from a banker at another branch, but in the end, I was there two hours, and finally told I would have to come back next Thursday.
All week, I've been calling a life insurance company to forward legal documents and get information. They finally told me, after several calls and emails, that I should contact the local agent who sold the policy. That agent says the policy was sold to a different company, and he is no longer connected to it. Again, he tried to help by contacting someone higher up. This person woke me up this morning to spend 15 minutes basically telling me that he can't help, either. So I will have to wait on the new company to decide it wants to deal with me.
The thing is, my dad may have died, but I am alive and will be the one deciding if I want to work with these companies in the future. So far, the only one that's been easy and above-and-beyond helpful is my dad's locally-owned bank in Iowa.
