TD Ameritrade US review: Estate of James B Burns

I am the Executor of the Estate of James B Burns who when he passed away had two accounts with yourselves IRA xxxx2561/xxxx9410 and had been a customer for many years.

My name is Virginia Greenwood and I have previously forwarded yourselves a Death Certificate and a copy of my Letters Testamentary for the above Estate and the replies I have received began on 4th January 2023 and I am no further on now than I was on 4th January 2023.

As I live in England I am not familiar with your terminology nor the types of account you deal with and I have Ifound the information sent to me very confusing. Between 4th January 2023 and 15th January 2023 I received 9 emails. I was given a Work I.D. [protected] and a reference (KMM132684791V55413LOKM). 5TH January I was given Work ID [protected] (KMM132702510V28502LOKM) no name attached. 5th January Instructions for IRA account ending 2561 and for each beneficiary to the account ending 4910 to submit TOD affidavit, Standard Account Application and a Transfer on Death Agreement (optional). Also I received 6 forms for completion and for first time told to mark everything with Work ID number. ATTN: Estate Department, Work I.D. [protected] (What does that mean?)

AT THIS POINT I DONT KNOW WHICH ACCOUNT NUMBER REFERS TO WHICH ACCOUNT? OR even KMM number or Work ID number so how can I attach it when I don’t know which account it refers to?

10 January 2023

This person offered me to ring the Estate department HOWEVER living in England and ringing [protected], I couldn’t get through because I didn’t have full Account Numbers or PIN numbers.

11 January 2023

Email following up on Work ID [protected]

14 January 2023

Apologising for confusion and have attached Death Certificate and Letters Testamentary to Work Item [protected]

15 January 2023

No name on email KMM132889824V24861LOKM

This time information on the two accounts but still don’t know difference between IRA Account and Individual Account.

15 January 2023

Work ID [protected] – still don’t know which account this is attached to.

Telling me to include decedents name and account number on all paperwork sent. (I do not have full account numbers as explained in previous emails to estate department.

IN DESPERATION I contacted someone using the main TD Ameritrade web site – a lady called Nancy helped me and explained which account number referred to which account. I asked her if it would be possible to have ONE person to be in communication with and Nicole Bartok was made my contact.

Nicole explained what I needed to do for each account and that the IRA account had to be dealt with by the next of kin. I contacted my step brother and gave Nicole his details.

Since then neither of us has had contact with Nicole – she could be off sick, left for a new job, laid off but we have been left hanging, no one has contacted either myself or my step brother who has to deal with Account Number 2561 as he is the next of kin.

This treatment is totally unacceptable, we are being passed from pillar to post, getting different information from different members of the Estate Department.

What are the CURRENT work ID numbers, KMM numbers and why are my stepbrother and I being given the runaround? It is incompetence at its finest. Why does each person give a different instruction on what to do with each account?

WHY HAVE WE NOT HEARD BACK FROM NICOLE? It’s been over a week.

Get your act together and get this sorted immediately. My stepbrother was told by one of your estate personnel that they had many James B Burns customers so he couldn’t help as he didn’t know to which one my stepbrother referred.

HOW MANY JAMES B BURNS HAVE MOVED FROM PUNTA GORDA, FLORIDA TO ALBUQUERQUE NM since 9th September? How about ONE? I have copies of the letters from yourselves dated 17 September, one to the old address in Punta Gorda and one to the new address in Albuquerque.

3 KMM numbers and 3 Work ID number for two accounts which are having to be dealt with separately!

A very disillusioned, upset, confused and angry Executor/Stepdaughter/Beneficiary.

IS THIS AMERICA’S FINEST as you claim to be? I understand that I cannot complete my work with account ending 9410 until I get my ITIN number but my stepbrother has an ITIN number so what is the problem with that and why is the account not being processed?

YOUR STRAP LINE IN ALL EMAILS SAYS – ‘We’re here to make this process as easy as possible for you’. It’s a joke!

Virginia Greenwood