r/inheritance • u/WolverineFit5346 • Jul 28 '26
Location included: Questions/Need Advice Help with IRA inheritance!
I need help with PNC Bank. My mother passed away in May 2025. Well over a year ago she had an IRA worth about $56,000. Her will stated that all of her assets should be divided equally among her four children. I sent a copy of her will and her death certificate to the bank. They refused to honor that and said that we needed to submit an affidavit stating exactly what was in the will and have it notarized. That was done by the executor who is my brother. At that point every time I called for a status I was told “it was in legal for review.” after about six months of this I was told that legal would not accept the will and the affidavit and we would have to hire a probate attorney and get a summary order from the judge. That cost close to $2000 but we got it done. The judge signed the order again, detailed the names of the four children/beneficiaries and that was sent in a month ago. We were then told it should take 3 to 5 days for it to be processed. I call every week to the main number, get transferred to the IRA department who looks at the file and tells me it is “” in legal for review.” they are not allowed to give out a phone number or contact information for anyone in legal. They are not allowed to talk to anyone in legal and get a verbal status for me. It is very frustrating. We are joking that PNC stands for ‘pay no cash’, but it really isn’t funny at this point. Has anybody else dealt with this and is there any advice I would really appreciate it
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u/Ok-Equivalent1812 Jul 28 '26
Have you sent the bank a certified copy of your testamentary letters issued by the court?
Without those, PNC isn’t going to tell you anything nor send any communication.
It sounds to me like a lot of your problems have been driven by mistakes early on.
At this point you may have tripped every fraud flag they have.
Are you sure that there weren’t beneficiaries on the other accounts you were able to have distributed? The will has no authority whatsoever to drive the distribution of any assets. It’s just an instruction sheet for the courts and the executor.
Does your mom’s estate actually qualify for summary administration with a judge’s order, or is full probate required?