3 months to close a deceased's accounts

On 11 December 2014, as the Executor of the Late Estate of my father, I opened an Estate Late account with ABSA and requested that his existing accounts with ABSA be closed and the balances transferred to the Estate late account. I also requested that Certificates of Balances at the date of death be issued.<br> <br> I have since followed up weekly - the National deceased estates call centre response time is extremely slow - you have to hold at least 7 minutes before being answered. Every person gives a different reason for the delay. I had to go back to the Brooklyn ABSA branch 3 times to resubmit my FICA documents.<br> <br> After a month I was told that the delay is caused by a surety my dad signed. The surety was signed for my ABSA student loan, which was paid off more than 5 years ago. <br> <br> To date the accounts have still not been closed because ABSA is having trouble moving their own surety from their own system.<br> <br> This is now causing an unacceptable delay in the winding up of the estate. ABSA is holding a very large cash amount which as a result of their inefficiencies cannot be made available to the widow.