Estate Department of CIBC review: Transferring deceased TFSA accounts to his spouse.

More than two months ago, my 89 year old uncle passed away. In his Will he had left all his property and bank accounts to his wife. All the bank accounts were jointly owned with his wife except the TFSA, which was to be given to his spouse. I was assigned as the executor of his Will.

Ten days after his death, a representative of CIBC branch on Danforth Ave in Toronto submitted to the required documentation to Estate Department of CIBC. Although the CIBC branch representative did her best to process the documents with the Estate office of CIBC, the Estate Department representative kept asking for one form after the other, without transferring the money to the spouse of the deceased person.

A few weeks ago, I decided to call the CIBC estate department (tel: [protected]) and I had to wait 45 minutes before a representative answered the phone his name was Ahmed polite and knowledgeable and told me a form needed to be completed by the CIBC representative at the branch before they could proceed the file. The form was completed and submitted to the Estate department but the money was still in the accounts in the deceased’s name.

I called the Estate Department again and again and had to wait for a long time. Another representative named Ardell answered.. She was uncooperative and told me that she would not release any information to me, only to the CIBC branch representative, I told her that I was the executor of the Will, but that didn’t change her mind. However, when I told her that I would file a complaint to the higher authorities of CIBC, mentioning her name, she immediately told me that she would check the file to see why the transfer was delayed. She also told me that her supervisor’s name was Rekha. A few days later the cash TFSA account of the deceased was transferred to his wife's account and the deceased’s name was removed from the joint account he had with his wife.

More than two months had passed since the CIBC branch submitted the documents, and the transfer of the remaining account of the deceased to his wife was still incomplete. I called the CIBC estate department again, and a third representative by the name of Jeff answered. He was rude and had no idea how to ask me questions regarding my identification and refused to release any information about the deceased’s file. I gave up and ended the phone call. A few hours later I called again and spoke to a fourth representative by the name of John, who was polite, knowledgeable and very helpful. He told me that in 10 working days the deceased’s TFSA brokerage account would be transferred to his wife’s account. I called the CIBC branch representative and she also told me that the supervisor of the estate department of CIBC named Rehka assured her that all transfers would be completed in ten working days!