Late Estate - FNB Fiduciary department

FNB Fiduciary Case number CN*** Estate Late HERCULES KRUGER

Good day.

Mr. Hercules Kruger passed away on 01 July 2023. His widow went to the FNB Bela Bela the same day to close all his accounts. The bank then advised her that we as executors need to go to any FNB branch to open a Late Estate account so that his last pension that has been paid into his account, could be transferred into and we can then pay it out to the widow. The amount was R17,709.53 and there are NO other assets.

After we acquired the necessary documents and authorisation from the High court, we were able to open said account at FNB Louis Trichardt branch on 11 September 2023. We received an e-mail in my 'spam' folder from the FNB Fiduciary department on 14 September 2023 asking again for all the documents we handed in at the Louis Trichardt branch. I only realised this on 12 October and sent all the needed documents together with an Instruction letter.

When I contacted the department on 24 October 2023 to find out how long the process would take, they told me about 30 days because it is a small estate.

I then received a, e-mail later on the 24th, requiring the Instruction Letter, which I then send, AGAIN.

On 27 November 2023 I sent a mail asking for feedback on this case, I only received an automated male saying that they would get back to me.

In the meantime, the widows FNB banking App was blocked because the bank wanted a payment on of R1,410.15 on a Revolving Facility that Mr. Kruger apparently had on his name, but she does not have any details or account number on this Facility.

On 11 December I contacted FNB Fiduciary and the man on the phone told me that he can see on the system the documents has been received, but don't know how far they are in the process. This person also spoke so soft and mumbled, I couldn't make out his name and had to ask him a view times to repeat himself so I could just understand what he is trying to say...

On 13 December 2023 I went back to FNB Louis Trichardt to find out what we can do about this situation, as it seems that the Fiduciary department is not working on anything... They then sent all the documents, AGAIN (for the fourth time now) to the Fiduciary department and suggested that the widow pay the Revolving Facility in the meantime to get them off her back. But not Louis Trichardt nor Bela Bela branch were able to give us account details for payment, and I am also sure that there would have been insurance on this Facility (unless the Bank can prove otherwise).

On 19 January 2023 we sent mail again, and to this day still got no feedback.

This is really getting ridiculous, as something that should have been finalised in 30 days is now taking more than 3 months. We don't know what is going on, and in the meantime the widow must struggle with the banking app blocking her on top of going through a very emotional time of her life!