SAN ANTONIO — Julia Huber's older sister, Noona, is bedridden with pneumonia. In fact, Noona had to be transferred to a skilled nursing facility and was incapacitated.
Huber needed to be able to take over her sister's finances so she could help her pay bills and make repairs to her sister's home in Arlington. Huber thought she would be able to simply draw up paperwork to take over the bank account, or establish "power of attorney," have her sister sign the paperwork, and then take the paperwork to Chase Bank.
Unfortunately, it was not that simple.
Huber first took her paperwork to Chase Bank at the end of March. She said the bank later refused to accept the paperwork because her sister had not initialed one of the pages correctly.
Huber had already gone to Arlington to draw up papers once and she now had to take a second trip to get the papers signed again. Still, she got the new, corrected, paperwork back to the bank by April 15 to get it sorted out.
Then, Chase Bank found another problem. Huber said her sister's middle initial on the paperwork didn't match her middle initial on her sister's bank account. Huber said she tried to work with the bank to move things forward, and provide any documents they needed, but she didn't hear anything back for nearly a month.
Finally, Huber Called KENS 5.
"We have followed through and done everything they asked us to do." Huber said. "I need help. I'm tired, I'm worn out, and I need help."
KENS 5 contacted Greg Hassell with Chase Bank's Corporate Communications and he started looking into the situation. It turns out, Huber's sister had been married twice and her name had changed multiple times. That had resulted it different names on different important documents, and the bank was having trouble matching those documents up.
Still, Chase Bank's escalation team was able to better communicate with Huber after Hassell got involved. Two weeks later, the bank was able to sort it out and put Huber's name on the account.
Huber was then able to go to a local Chase Bank branch in San Antonio and get checks she could use to start paying bills for her sister. She will also be able to get a debit card.
"I'll be able to take care of her. Everything that is due every month. I'll be able to take her car and do whatever payments I have to do," Huber said.
Huber would also be able to start fixing her sister's home so Noona could then recover in her own home in Arlington. She's glad Chase Bank was able to sort it out and she's glad she called KENS 5.
"If you didn't push them with your connections I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have," Huber said. "I appreciate it very much and I know my sister does too."
Chase Bank provided the following statement via email:
We must protect the assets of our customers, especially when they’re incapacitated and someone we don’t know as a Chase customer tries to access them. That could involve a number of validations. We’ve worked through this with Ms. Huber, and we’re happy we could help her deal with her sister’s serious health challenges.
Chase Bank told KENS 5 they are happy to help customers designate a family member who can administer an account if that customer becomes incapacitated and this is easier if planned ahead of time.
Chase Bank said customers can do this by visiting a local branch. You can also learn about adding members to your account online here, and find the documents needed to do so here.
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