By far the most annoying thing in estate administration in Ontario is dealing with Canadian banks.
You should be prepared to receive bad advice, bad service, and very slow responses.
The service from the banks is the worst of any institution that estate trustees must regularly deal with. It is much worse and slower than the service from Canada Revenue Agency, the Courts, or any utility. The banks will, without fail, take many months to respond to the most basic requests and frequently their answers are wrong.
Here are some of the most common failings of Canadian banks when it comes to administration of estates in Ontario –
- Extreme delay. Delays of well over 6 months to deliver funds from the deceased to the estate trustee are common. No reason is ever provided, and you will never receive an apology or compensation. The likely answer is that they are holding the estate funds interest free for their own benefit; they certainly do not care about the negative customer experience.
- Refusal to provide the funds to any payee but “the estate of the deceased”. As the estate trustee you should have every right to do everything with the funds that the deceased could have, including directing that the payee be paid to someone other than an estate account for the estate. This is often very convenient if there are limited funds to avoid the need to open an estate account for one deposit and one withdrawal. Nevertheless, banks will frequently refuse to honour these requests – not for any good reason, just because it is their own internal rule.
- Unnecessary requests. Banks will routinely request paperwork that they should not need. For instance, a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee is a Court order only granted when someone has died and after the Court has received an original death certificate. Nevertheless, expect the bank to demand that you provide an original death certificate (unnecessary) and an original will (not available because by definition the original Will had to be filed with the Court).
- Decision makers hide. You will not be allowed to contact the estates department directly. They will hide behind frontline staff and refuse to correspond with you directly.
- Weak technology. No bank has a decent portal or system for receiving materials electronically. Everything is in paper – even electronic Court orders must be printed and notarized. It is not possible to open an estate account online: you must go into a branch to do so.
- No electronic signatures. Banks will demand ‘wet signatures’ (original signatures, preferably in blue ink). Even though The Electronic Commerce Act allows them to accept DocuSign and scans they refuse to do so. This is entirely their decision despite its negative impact on service to you.
- Cavalier about your security. The banks are very slapdash about your security – be careful what they do with your SIN number and driver’s license.
- Bad advice. Bank staff will frequently give advice that is against your interests and often wrong in law. For instance, they routinely tell executors who do not reside in Ontario to renounce the role (even if you live in Canada in another province). This is often very harmful to your interests and you should get legal advice before you renounce. The reason that the Bank suggests it is because their own weak systems require in-person attendance at the local branch. This is their fault and not something you should simply acquiesce to.
- Requiring in-person attendance. The banks will almost invariably refuse to deal with you remotely and will demand that you attend in person the branch where the deceased banked. When this is very inconvenient for you, you should demand that they accept your attendance at any branch across the country. Note that they will demand that the appointment is at a time convenient for their ‘advisor’.
- Demanding unanimous simultaneous attendance. If there is more than one estate trustee, you should expect the bank to refuse to accept any attendance ‘in series’ or by power of attorney or ‘delegation of authority’. The Bank will demand that all executors attend at the bank at the same time together, regardless of how inconvenient this is.
- Verifying existing customers. It does not matter how long or how much you personally deal with the bank. You should expect that bank to demand that you schedule a meeting at a time of their convenience for you to attend a very long, slow, and inefficient in-person meeting where they ‘verify’ your identity.
- Locking access to funds. If there is more than one executor, then the Bank will almost certainly block access to all the deceased’s funds until they release them 6+ months after receiving the Certificate of Appointment. You should assume that you will not be able to access ANY of the deceased’s funds during this time. You will not be able to access an estate account with online banking.
- Requiring named beneficiaries to get the consent of an estate trustee. Funds should flow automatically to a designated beneficiary, albeit possibly after the six (6) months during which a dependent can bring a dependent support claim. However, some banks, especially Desjardins and National Bank – frequently refuse to pay funds out to successor annuitants and designated beneficiaries without the consent in writing of the estate trustee. This is improper.
Plan ahead: Whenever possible you should plan for this lack of cooperation and poor service. No matter how bad the service, frontline staff is not empowered to solve the problem for you.
Do not expect to receive estate funds quickly. You may need to pay estate expenses (funeral, probate, house expenses, etc.) from funds that were not in the deceased’s name or account at death for over 6 months. This is particularly relevant for attorneys for property who will later act as the estate trustee.
Be forceful. Bank staff are often over-worked and very poorly trained. They often have no knowledge of the law and no support. You must learn your rights and assert them. Be prepared to be forceful. When necessary, hire legal counsel to assist.
