Bank of America loses documents, drags out mortgage issue

When someone passes away, family members are often left to put affairs in order. Unless various businesses like lenders and lawyers have ready access to multiple documents, like bank account information, deeds and other legal files, this process might drag on for a long time.

According to an in The Consumerist, one college student recently went through this situation after his mother died. Following the death, her son Matt experienced difficulties and miscommunications in talks with representatives from Bank of America while trying to verify the state of the woman's mortgage.

"We later got on the phone with someone else who said to send them a copy of the death certificate. They lost that one," Matt told the news provider. "Then they lost the third, hand-delivered, death certificate."

The student eventually filed a Cease and Desist order following six months of unproductive correspondence, but the mortgage and insurance issue is still under review.

An electronic document management service that saves the information on paper files to a computer database would have been helpful if used in this situation. Not only is the process beneficial because multiple people can access the records from different locations, but even if the primary source is misfiled, the information won't be lost.

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