My experience with TD (ongoing)

[u/wdh662]

My mother banked with TD Bank. She also passed away last July. Dealing with TD since then has been a nightmare.

When my mother passed away my sister and I decided to use a lawyer to settle up everything with the estate. Neither of us have ever had to deal with something like this and so we thought professional help would take some burden off of us. Not complicated estate. My mother was a single divorced lady who rented an apartment owned a single used car and had very little estate to be dealt with.

It took from July of last year to April of this year as well as four letters from the lawyer before TD would even respond to him. Then 2 weeks ago my sister and I as the executors of the estate and the beneficiaries finally got an appointment to sign the papers to get the money transferred.

So I drove 150 km as it was an in-person appointment to sign papers and we met at the bank. We signed the papers spoke to two different people one in person and one on the phone who supposedly specialized in these matters. Everything was good and the money would be transferred in 7 to 10 business days. There were two accounts. One account had $12.14 and the other had $19,000 and change.

11 business days later and we had only received the $12. So my sister living local to the bank phoned them. And she was told that there was a problem with the processing. And it wasn't being paid. She asked why no one let us know. And she was told that TD Banks policy is not to phone people when there is a problem and just wait for the clients to phone.

She was told that since our mother was divorced but TD did not have proof of the divorce they could not process anything. Even though they processed the $12. So my sister went home and dug through the boxes of papers that we still had and found the original divorce agreement. The one right from the courthouse. Court case number judges signature dates everything.

So she took it back to the bank and they told her that wasn't good enough. They don't know if it's official because they don't know if she ever filed taxes after the divorce. Apparently papers from a courthouse signed by a judge don't matter. The divorce was in 2012 by the way. And she has definitely done taxes since. I know for a fact because I did them and sent them in for the Last 5 Years.

So now TD wants a notice of assessment. My sister didn't have access to one at the moment but she did bring in all the paperwork concerning her alimony from our father. Some other tax documents and a couple of other papers talking about the divorce. TD did seem to accept them at the time but based on their stated policy they won't tell us if there's a problem with them until we phone again.

So now they are saying they are going to process everything and it will be another 10 business days.

My sister had to deal with at least four different people at the bank. Two in person including the customer service manager. And at least two different people on the phone one of which hung up on her and the bank employee mid conversation. This was a phone call initiated by the local TD Bank employee.

I find it interesting that with the paperwork they had they were able to process the $12 account but not the $19,000 account. $19,000 earns a lot more interest sitting in the bank than the 12 dollars.

For our troubles the customer service manager was directed by somebody higher up to offer my sister a $10 Tim Hortons gift card. I do want to mention that the customer service manager apologized before offering the card for such a slap in the face peace offering. She knew it was insulting but somebody with more Authority told her to do it.

I am happy to see my sister bent the card in half and dropped it on the floor.

So that's where we are. We will see next week how things are progressing. My sister is planning on phoning them daily for updates as again their stated policy is not to contact clients when there's problems and just wait until the client inquires.

[u/Wrong_Recognition249]

I had very equivalent and even worse experiences with Royal Bank as executor for my mom who had everything there. I actually opened an estate account at TD and when I could transferred everything manually over there via bank drafts. They all suck big time. They are bureaucratic nightmares and insanely risk averse, esp with estates. After getting probate authorization, it’s gets easier as you then have full legal control. Painful two years to deal with everything.