““Chase told me they don’t question their clients,” Spanierman recalled. “But why not? What would it hurt for them to ask more questions and to do something?””
Do something? It is not the bank’s job to babysit their clients. If any babysitting is required that should be done by the family. It looks like the family is just trying to blame someone else for their failures.
Several things here that could be improved.
1) Families with elders who have significant assets should setup a 2-step confirmation for large transactions. If the brokerages and banks want it for THEIR protection, so should YOU!
2) Banks & brokerages should make such 2-tiered authorizations readily available and PUBLICIZE said tools! A tool that exists but is not visible is not an answer.
3) Yes, a large bank like Chase may do large transfers routinely BUT NOT FROM an 81yo’s individual non-business account going out-of-country. I doubt if even Warren Buffett would do a transaction like this from a personal account!
In “the old days” when someone’s bank was not some giant corporation but more of a “local” bank, where the customers and bank employees knew each other by name, someone would have strongly questioned the old woman and spoken to her daughter.
Living in the age of the “impersonal” community, everyone is an island and has little personal knowledge or contact with either the business people they deal with or conversely the customers they deal with, and as “autonomous” individuals it is “rude” to dare question someone’s actions.
But I am sure when I was a small child my grandmother’s local bank would have strongly questioned such transactions from her and called my mom.
Paging Dr Phil.
Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Being "elderly" is no excuse for the bank to tell you what you should or should not do.
BTW, what is the legal definition of "elderly"?
Was it that large in a one lump sum? Or spread out in smaller amounts? I didn’t read the latimes not going to, site, but the excerpt doesn’t mention of it,was onemwire transfer or not.
If that is the case and it was that obvious then why didn't Spanierman take over managing her mother's finances? Especially if she had been the victim of a smaller fraud the previous year?
For transfers to or from a non-Chase bank account, you can move up to $100,000 each day between your accounts. (personal account)
Also ANY Chase account can be tagged to require a phone call authorization on a limit that you set.
My 86 yo mother-in-law lost ~$10,000 from her Chase account after a telephone scammer (pretending to be a Apple security representative) tricked her into providing information that allowed unauthorized access to the Chase account. Chase covered the loss. I doubt, however, if Chase would have covered the loss if my mother-in-law voluntarily initiated the wire transfers.
This is the kind of customer who needs a $600. transaction alert build into their account features. A good bank would do that for you on their own if this doesn’t fit your usual withdrawal amounts.
Yes. Of course we must let the banks decide how and where we can spend our money. We might make a mistake. < /s >
About a year ago my bank suspended my debit card when two suspicious overseas purchases were attempted against it. They followed up by issuing me a new card.
My wife and I are living with her 94-year-old father. He can no longer take care of himself and does not have the energy to make his own meals but he jealously guards his bank account and does not share his balance or checkbook with us.
He gets his Social Security direct deposited. He receives a pension check each month and, when he has two months’ checks, we drive him to the bank and he cashes them and keeps the money.
How exactly would we go about legally taking that control from him? Why would we? Thus far, he opens his bills arriving in the mail and writes checks for his utilities and taxes. This is very important to him that he retains this control.
My point here is the elderly have a right to buy what they want and they have a right to be reckless with their money. The elderly can leave and have left money to their household cats in their wills. A lot of elderly people blow money at casinos. Should their money be taken from them by their children before they gamble it away?
This article sounds like a daughter looking forward to a pile of money from her mother’s estate that she now cannot inherit.
I bet if I went through your checkbook I would find things I think you wasted YOUR money on. You could go through my checkbook and find things you believe I wasted my money on.
I see old guys driving expensive sports cars. I think it is a waste of money but THEY DON’T.
Stop doing business with companies that hate you.
If they suspect a scam the most they can do is put a 25 day hold on it. After that, we'll it's the clients money. Typical they call you if they suspect fraud, and call a trusted contact. Sometimes other agencies get involved, but in the end it's the client's choice.
My name has been on my mom's bank accounts for awhile now and I power of attorney over All of her assets. She is in an assisted care facility now and I sold her house recently for 6 figures. The bank has strict instructions to let me know if any amount over $100 is withdrawn from the savings account.
Recently my sister and my mom called for an account balance and the bank wouldn't give it to them.
Possible scammer? it wasn't but the bank didn't know. This bank watches out for it's customers.
Probably depends on whether the recipient of the funds also has a Chase account and what income it generates.
Well, the good news is that, since the transfer exceeded $600, the bank has notified the IRS, so the gov can now go after him for acting like a drug trafficker.
my local Chase branch manager, now retired, was very aware when these types of transactions were attempted, and did everything within her limited power to try to stop them ... the problem is that banks have no authority to prevent people from doing what they want to with their own money as long as they are not breaking the law ...