Access of my late mother's account with insufficient information

After being hospitalized for over 7 weeks, my mother past away and we had to start dealing with her Estate. Myself and my two siblings app**** for Letter of Executorship, which they had selected me as the Executor of my mothers Estate. I then started submitting the necessary requirements to the relevant Institutions, they were all helpful and we are awaiting feedback from their side.

Until I went to Standard bank for assistance with my mother's account. I was told that someone had already claimed for my mothers account and had requested that her account be stopped. On Friday 21 July 2023 around noon I called Standard bank home loans and asked for assistance with my mother's Bond details as well as life assurance and was advised to go to the nearest bank as that's where I would find assistance. First thing Saturday Morning I went to PTA north Standard Bank branch where found that it was under construction and had to look for another branch. I thought the nearest branch would be Wonderboom Junction, unfortunately there was no branch available. I ended up in Standard Bank Gezina Branch where I was asked for the required documents to access my mothers accounts: 1. Letter of Executorship 2. Death Certificate 3. My ID copy

After confirming that I had them I was referred to a consultant by the name of Tsakane, who took down my details and stopped assisting me saying that a certain Mr. Philip Mogase had already made a submission for my mothers account to be stopped. She also took a look at the details he produced to be assisted and told me that there was something wrong with the Department of Justice Letter provided as evidence: 1. It was written Master of the North Gauteng High Court not Master of the high court. 2. It had no reference number 3.The letter looked older that the dated stamp and seemed to have been edited. 4.The Master's address was not fully noted.

What also surprised me, was that there was no further requirements noted like we were requested to provide. I then left disappointed and dissatisfied with the fact that I had to go to the Master of the high court and inquire about the validity of the letter. When I got home I gave the family feedback and they were not satisfied with the fact that Standard bank entertained a person with outstanding information on my late mother's Estate.

I then went to Standard Bank Wonderpark and told the lady at reception that I'd like to query my mother's account. My wife and I set down and with a consultant by the name of Phenyo Maumakwe or Sibongile Mtshweni. I'm saying or as they didn't introduce themselves to us and we had ask their names in writing when we left. The initial consultant told us that if we querying my mother's account we could've done it over the phone and immediately stood up and called the other consultant without even hearing our side of the story. When she came back she told us that they would take our details and call the home loan department for assistance on Monday and that it was unnecessary for us to come to the branch. We then told them that we were referred by the online consultant to come the the branch and now we have to just go back without assistance after waiting for almost two hours. We then had to explain again that we're not here to just inquire about our mother's home loan, but all her accounts with the bank as we need to round up her estate. They told us the same story I received from Standard Bank Gezina, which I asked them to take a closer look at the letter they had on system as it seemed *****ulent and why they didn't have the rest of the requirements we produced. They told me to take it up with the Master of the high court and I asked why they would expect us to take it up with the high court as Standard bank is the one who accepted insufficient information from someone and why don't they escalate the matter to their ***** department. After we asked them, they then said that they would escalate the matter to their ***** department and we then asked them of the turn around time and they told us then that it would take 14 working days.

As a Standard Bank client, I'm very disappointed that at this time of grief an institution that is required to uphold FICAA,TCF and POPIA would go and expect me to prove the validity of a document I don't have access to. There are certain requirements when being assisted by an institution like Standard Bank, eg: having all the necessary documents before accessing a client's account and that wasn't done in this instance. When a client brings a situation to your attention, I'd expect that Standard Bank would prioritize on the issue rather than sending me to another institution with insufficient information. I'm required to finalize my mothers estate by the 17th of January 2024 and these kind of setbacks are unnecessary.

I cannot wait for a 14 working day turnaround time, when the situation was caused by Standard Bank.

Please assist with this matter urgently as it's causing unnecessary setbacks to my process.

Regards Patrick Modiga