Greg Miller, the son of Bette Miller, the woman who is in a dispute with Bank of America over a $5,000 bond bought in 1984 from Rainier National Bank, has written in to tell his side of the story. Here’s his letter.
Greg writes:
Having read all about this on your web site, I can see there is some confusion, so I thought I would set the record straight for your readers. I am Greg Miller, Bette’s son. I have been chasing this for over two years. Here is the real story, only part of which was seen on KOMO 4 News.
In about April of 2005 my mother had a silent heart attack. She was on the floor of our family home of 40 years for about two days and was rushed to the hospital. Her ability to care for herself in the family home safely became an issue. She tried to return home and was unable to remain there successfully. Such being the case moving to an assisted living facility became the priority. My sister and I had to help her by doing the leg work of consolidating her financial position, cleaning the house, selling property, and handling liquidation of any investments to help her finance her future. My father died about 12 years ago. Since at that time she was able to continue in the home without difficulty on her social security and the remainder of my father’s pension, there was no need for her to concern herself with their investments or what bonds, stocks, etc. remained in their safe deposit box.
In April of 1984 my mother and father purchased a Rainier Bank Bond for $5000.00. They saw on the face of the bond that it automatically reinvested every two years and saw no reason to cash it. On the face of the bond it clearly stated that you had to present the bond to cash it in. Great! No worries. It remained in the safe deposit box collecting interest. In the mean time Rainier Bank was sold to Seattle Pacific Bank. Seattle Pacific was the acquired by SeaFirst Bank that was then bought by Bank of America. Fast forward to April of 2005, my mother asked me to handle cashing that bond for her. I carried it to the Bank of American branch in Monroe, Washington, where, after a couple of weeks of research, they indicated they would not cash it. I was most frustrated and I wrote a complaint to the BOA CEO in North Carolina. He referred it to one of his functionaries who indicated after further research they would not be paying the bond unless we could come up with Form 1099′s proving our claim. When I asked what 1099 forms were, it was indicated that they were IRS forms. I asked who was responsible for producing these forms and they said, “The bank.” Now the bank had told me they had no record of this bond as they didn’t keep records older than 7 years. It is conceivable that somewhere in the shuffle between all these banks and records the information on this bond was inadvertently lost. The question remains, why would a bank ask for records they know could not exist because they would have had to produce them on a bond for which they have no record, pretty circular logic. I sent the functionaries several more entreaties without BOA stepping up to take care of their contractual responsibilities. I contacted a friend who is an elder law attorney and was referred to our current attorney along with the advice that BOA was trying to either wait for my mother to die or the statute of limitations to run out.
Our attorney checked with unclaimed property in Washington State to determine if the bond had been treated as an unclaimed account and escheated to the State. No record of any escheatment was found to exist. An investigation launched by our attorney inquiring to the Federal Comptroller of the Currency resulted in the governmental equivalent of a shrug; they were unable to make certain verification either way. They said the bank had allowed folks to cash the bond without actually having the bond previously. It is weird when a bank has a contract and they see fit to, by choice, violate that contract with others as a way of getting out of honoring it at all with those that comply with the contract. Then BOA told us that the bond/contract was not sufficient and couldn’t we produce other proof.
This was the rough equivalent of me buying a car, disposing of the contract copies provided me and then acting as though I had no reason to pay for the car because I had no record of it. The bank would produce their copies of the contract to prove their point. Then I would tell them the copies of the contract were not sufficient. We all know that scenario would last-not long at all.
The conclusion our attorney offered appeared correct. It appeared they were stonewalling us. I found it ironic in the extreme that BOA’s tag line on advertising was “The bank with a higher standard.” Their higher standard involved ignoring contractual obligations and attempting to rip off an 80 year old widow in assisted living with no conscience, doing their best to get away with whatever they thought they were able to get away with because they are a big bank and do not care about anyone or anything but their bottom line and are willing to do anything to enhance that bottom line.
I, my mother, and our attorney continue to tenaciously pursue this both on substance and principle. If my mother can be ripped off then none of us is safe. We all entrust our funds to banks for our future, both short and long term. I began to wonder if I should not start stuffing my mattress because at least I could guarantee the mattress could be made to give it back to me with just a little wrestling with it.
By the way, the value of the bond is currently in the neighborhood of about $30,000.00. We also want BOA to pay our legal fees as we never would have had to obtain an attorney had they stepped up and handled their responsibilities appropriately. Not one thin dime of my mother’s investment should have to be used to pay for an attorney or the hassle this has been for the previous years to her and the entire family. It was BOA’s attitude of unwillingness to work with us that put us in this position and, since it was their actions that caused this they also need to shoulder the fiscal responsibilities that their actions forced on us.
On a more personal note, I find this whole scenario disgusting, frightening, and depressing. Banks tell us to invest our money with them. They tell us it is safe, trustworthy, and backed by the FDIC. My parents saved for their retirement and now, when my mother needs the money, the Bank denies they owe her a dime. They hold her accountable for their poor record keeping and use that as an excuse to take her money. This behavior is reprehensible and causes a lack of faith in banks in general and Bank of America in particular. They are behaving with callous disregard to my mother, their moral and legal obligations, their business ethics, and the public trust. This is my mother, who birthed me, raised me, loved me, and protected me. Now it is my turn and I will not let her down nor see anyone else do so.
Herb Weisbaum was kind enough to work on telling our story and insuring others knew about it. If this issue is of concern to your readers, please have them communicate their displeasure with BOA to:
Kenneth D. Lewis
Chairman, CEO, and President
Bank of America Corporation
Bank of America Corporate Center
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255Hope this helps clarify the situation to your readers.
Thanks!
Greg Miller
PREVIOUSLY: Bank Of America Refuses To Pay 80-Year-Old’s $5,000 Bond
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You should inform them that you’ve blasted them on the internet and your next step is to blast them over televised communications and their stock investors. That should cause a few mouths at BOA to drop. Because once their investors catch wind of a possible scandal/negative publicity one of BOAs’ execs should curtail this incident. And if not, revel is self-satisfaction over the negative publicity you’ll caused for them.
So much hate for BoA. I’ve never had them screw me out of anything nor charge me any fees other than the few times I wasn’t responsible and overdrafted. That’s not their fault, but mine. I learned and never did it again. *shrug*
This is why I don’t bank with BoA anymore. What they have done in this situation is both calous and degrading. It’s disgusting how people who see themselves as holding the slightest bit of authority attempt to parade it around regardless of what it’s costing the victim.
@BankOnIt:
My bad on the BA —> NB merger, I skimmed your comment too quickly.
“I cannot find anything that implies Ranier was purchased by Seattle Pacific which was subsequently purchased by SeaFirst.”
My wording up above was definitely unclear. I meant to say that I didn’t find anything substantiating the writer’s claim that Ranier was Purchased by Seattle Pacific and that Seattle Pacific was then purchased by SeaFirst. I agree that BA acquired SeaFirst independent of purchasing Security Pacific (the purchaser of Ranier).
Since I think we can be pretty confident it went from:
Ranier —> Security Pacific —> BA —> BofA
does this mean that the writer has misunderstood his lawyer on the chain of acquisition or does the lawyer have it wrong. If it’s the former, hey it happens. If it’s the latter then correcting this may clear things up and I’d be looking for new counsel in the mean time.
Seafirst Bank aquired Security Pacific Bank in 1992. At this point Seafirst was a wholly-owned subisidiary of BankAmerica (the California one).
I think the main issue here is that corporate bonds are not and do not behave like government bonds. If the OP’s parents wanted something with absolute certainty to last them through retirement, they should have investigated TBills. Although many people confuse buying stock/bonds in banks with having added security or some sort of FDIC insurance, they don’t. It’s akin to buying a bond in GE or any other publicly traded corporation. There is investment risk and call risk, and if a bond was purchased that had a call provision, there is no way that bond would have been valid 10-20 years later. The OP’s parents had a contract with Rainier Bancorporation – not with Bank of America. My guess would be that the bonds were called before the merger with Security Pacific or some sort of reconcilement was made. Either that, or new certificates were issued to account for the merger (the way that common stock would be treated). That might be why BofA does not recognize the old Rainier certificate.
Any udpates on this story?
Yeah, it’s been surprisingly quiet.
Well, I have just had an interesting interaction with the Bank of America. I too have a “Rainier Bank Bond” that was purchased in 1981, shortly after my oldest son was born. It was to have been used for his college education.
I would like to add the following comments, based on my interactions with Bank of America.
(1) The document is not a “Bond,” it is a Certificate of Deposit. There is a big difference as the Securities and Exchange Commission regulates bonds and I had earlier talked to the SEC about missing bonds.
(2) According to the Dept. Manager I talked to at Bank of America they will not send me anything in writing that says that they will not honor the CD. They will send me a form letter that says that they have no records of the CD, but they can not customize the form letter in any way.
(3) I hypothesized with them that one of three things must have happened, (a) I or my son either cashed out the CD at some point, (b) Rainier/SeaFirst/BofA must have turned the money over to some State’s Unclaimed Property division, and I was told that if the last address was a Washington address it would have been turned over to WA State’s Unclaimed property department, or (c) the money is still in the possession of the bank and records were lost or missplaced.
In this hypothesis discussion things got a little tense on the other side of the phone. What I was told was that the third option could not have happened from BofA’s perspective. I was assured that Banks don’t make mistakes like this.
I told them that I have contacted and worked with the State of Washington Unclaimed Property Dept. and they have told me that money was not turned over to them.
This means that hypothetically “b & c” didn’t happen, so the only remaining hypothesisis is “a,” which I don’t believe hapened.
I then asked them how I could prove to BofA that I did not cash out the CD. I said that it is my believe that I did not cash the CD out and that I talked to my son and he did not cash it out. But how can I prove to BofA that I didn’t do something? What document could I give them?
They said that if I could provide them with records indicating that the account was active then I could get the money. I asked if I searched and found some record from 1984 or 1990 or 1995 and brought it in, if they would honor the CD.
They said no, it had to be within the last 7 years. I said it sounded a bit like a catch-22 situation, in that they say there are no records in the past 7 years and I have to prove that there are records within BofA’s files and within the last 7 years and they just don’t know about them. Therefore, it is not worth my looking into my old tax records, I would have had to find something current and if there were current records, BofA would have them also. They wouldn’t comment on that.
I asked how this can be resolved? They have no potential method of resolving this within BofA and therefore I can only try to resolve this through means outside of BofA.
I told them that I have complaint forms for the WA State Attorney General’s office, the SEC, and will have to research the FDIC. I said that as a customer of BofA and as a stockholder of BofA, that I was not satisfied with their inability to suggest any cooperative course of action to resolve this problem. They had no comment or suggestion, but would send me a letter saying that they have no record of the CD.
Some updated information. I talked to the FDIC and they told me that unless the bank “failed” as in went bankrupt, the FDIC doesn’t insure deposits against bank errors, fraud, or stonewalling, just bank failure. So much for the illusion of the FDIC protecting peoples deposits.
I talked to a couple co-workers who are on boards of directors of a credit union and got some interesting advice. I also got the advice of a finance expert in how to calculate the claim on what the CD was now worth and in a way that would seem very fair and reasonable to BofA.
I filed a very detailed complaint with the US Comptroller of the Currency. This is the group that regulates National banks. BofA has taken that complaint very seriously and been very polite in trying to resolve things. It turns out that the person I have been talking to, who is trying to resolve this has told me that they do have microfilm from Rainier Bank days or at least some microfilm that she is trying to research to resolve this.
Therefore, I will give BofA a star for customer relations in trying to resolve this after a complaint was filed with the right federal banking regulatory agency. I will post more if and when this gets resolved.
I have heard nothing regarding the State of Washington Attorney General’s office complaint that I filed, which is also an interesting lesson in civics from my perspective. My complaint with the State of Washington AG focused on two areas of state law: (1) consumer protection regarding fulfilling the services promised on the face of the CD and (2)failure on the part of Rainier/BofA to follow Washington State law in regards to turning over unclaimed property.
I have a couple more options before I give up. It turns out that the godparents to my son (the one that the CD is for) have some close friends who are fairly high up in BofA. They offered to host a dinner at which my wife and I and their BofA friends would all be present. I am going to hold off on this and hope BofA does the right thing.
The final option is that if BofA tells me tough luck “no records = no money”, I am going to frame the CD/Bank Bond, along with the BofA letter and give it to my son to display in his office. Over the last three years he has been involved in the issuance of over a billion in debt instruments and at the moment he is the head of finance of a well known publicly traded company.
Well, this seems to be finally resolved for me and my family. After I submitted the complaint to the office of the comptroller of the currency, the person at Bank of America assigned to investigate my claim has been very professional and very polite.
She was able to find records that identified the account. Again, it was not a Bond (even though that is what the document given to me by Rainier Bank says in big print); but a Certificate of Deposit. She tracked that account up until 1991 and lost it in 1992. With some help on my part she found that the particular branch where the certificate of deposit had been made, was then sold to Key Bank. She told me that she felt that the Certificate of Deposit along with other accounts was likely tranferred to Key Bank and could I check my 1992 tax information to see if it had been transferred to Key Bank.
This weekend I was able to check old tax records and there it was a Key Bank account in about the right amount with the correct names on it.
I want to publicly apologize to Bank of America for thinking that they were trying to cheat me.
There are several “lessons learned” in this experience. The first is that one should keep all of ones tax & financial records pretty much forever. The second leason is that one really should organize one’s financial documents. The Bank Bond certificate should have been moved forward with each years tax records to the account they were with or when the Rainier Bank obligation became a Key Bank obligation, we should have written something on the Certificate or destroyed it. I also learned that a Certificate of Deposit is not really a transaction with a Banking Company, but is in many respects something associated wth the branch where the money is deposited. Another lesson I would like to pass along to Banks, it don’t make your certificates of deposite look like Bearer Bonds.
All in all, we had the money although I would have never connected a Key Bank savings account with a Rainier Bank “Bond” without the help of a very nice employee at Bank of America.
A lot of grief would have been saved if BofA had explained that the obligation may have been tranfered to another bank as a saving account and if BofA had a table of branches sold to other banks, such as Key Bank.