MW Most banks fail miserably at helping grieving families make this vital financial move
By Beth Pinsker
When a loved one dies, the last thing you want to hear is hold music
When you're grieving, this can make things worse.
When a loved one dies, the last thing you want to hear is hold music.
You've got enough on your plate that you can't spare time to wait for a representative from their financial institution as you try to settle their affairs - and then hear that they can't help you. But, invariably, this is what happens when somebody dies and their heirs try to move money around, pay last bills or claim insurance policies.
When AARP caregiving expert and columnist Amy Goyer was settling estates for her parents, she found the best experiences came from insurance companies - and that was mostly because those companies had departments dedicated to closing out estates. It made a huge difference. "I was able to get through to them right away, and they had trained agents to deal with people who were grieving," she said. "That somebody understood what I was going through and made it easier."
Goyer's experience is reflected in a new report from Sunset, a company that helps families settle estates. They help with paperwork, phone calls and document tracking.
CEO Stephen Walter says they were hearing so much frustration from customers that the company decided on a comprehensive performance review of the top 100 companies that interacted with its user base. They analyzed their records and rated based on such factors as the ease of the process; the quality of the communication; the training of the staff and whether they were from a dedicated department; and how long it took.
While no bank scored an outright F, the results were fairly damning. Only one got an A: Capital One $(COF)$. A-minus grades went to Bank of America (BAC) and U.S. Bank.
It went downhill from there. Only eight banks got Bs, while the majority got Cs; 36 got Ds.
Sunset gave detailed report cards for each bank, with notes from client experiences. "We help about 1,400 families a month and we plucked out who had experience at large financial institutions that we could learn from, and culled records from at least a thousand," said Walter. That included copies of all correspondence sent and received, tracking spreadsheets and logs and recordings of every call. If there was a complaining tone in the call, it was noted.
After helping clients sort through estate settlement tasks, Walter wasn't necessarily surprised by the bad grades, but more so by the good ones. "It's all on a curve. Even the best could be done better," he says.
There are three keys to making things better for all the companies that deal with any after-death account settlement.
Have a dedicated department
As Goyer also found, the best companies in this area have an actual estate team that is trained - and knows what it is doing. "That way, you can skip the general phone help line and not have to explain your situation to a different person each time," Walter says.
Initiate the process online
Most financial institutions have a helpful checklist on their websites on what to do when a loved one dies. Walter says they very rarely have a link to their own online settlement process on that page, which would direct families to the starting point they need.
"The more financial companies can make that easier, the better," says Goyer. "You're overwhelmed with the checklist when somebody dies. Having some sensitivity and ease in functioning is important."
Commit to a timeline
Most estate settlement tasks take time. They take multiple phone calls. You have to upload documents, which sometimes need to be clarified, and other times are rejected outright. It's a lot of back and forth, and as Goyer notes, people can get impatient in the haze of grief.
When Walter's clients don't know what timeline to expect, their experience gets much worse. "If they could say something like ,'We will turn it around in 10 days once you file,' it would be much more clear. Otherwise, our users call every other day to be the squeaky wheel," he says. "There are so many ways to sign up for a bank account, but seemingly these companies have never thought about what happens when somebody dies."
Got a question about investing, how it fits into your overall financial plan and what strategies can help you make the most out of your money? You can write to me at beth.pinsker@marketwatch.com. Please put "Fix My Portfolio" in the subject line.
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-Beth Pinsker
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February 27, 2026 12:13 ET (17:13 GMT)
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