Marcus by Goldman Sachs® review: Marcus/Goldman Sachs

I can't believe I have seen other bereavement problems. I think GS should be ashamed of themselves. Similar story to others, including them asking to talk to the deceased. Please folks, think twice before parking any money or doing business with them. Below is story:

Marcus/Goldman Sachs Bank has been extremely difficult to deal with and resolve a simple problem.

On July 31 my mother-in-law B.A.B., Toms River NJ died somewhat unexpectedly. Earlier that year she had moved some of her savings ($160,000) to a Marcus CD. In addition, she named her two daughters as beneficiaries of this account.

She had selected paperless statements for both this and her Marcus credit card. (This becomes important later.)

Right before she died she wanted to transfer about half the CD to her regular Citizens bank account which she did.

After she died, we contacted Marcus/Goldman Sachs. They supplied the beneficiary affidavits to be notarized, and the NJ tax form required. The beneficiaries completed these forms and sent them in together with death certificates etc.

After about a month with no reponse, we contacted "customer service". They said it was under review.

Subsequent calls continued to say it was under review.

At some point, they asked to speak to the both of the beneficiaries directly, which they did.

A month later, they said they were concerned about potential fraud.

The highlight of these conversations was when one of the customer service reps insisted on speaking to the deceased before anything more could happen. You can imagine the response from the deceased's daughter.

Subsequent to that (October at that time, two months later), they insisted that they needed the deceased spouse send in the court surrogates certificate, another death certificate, NJ tax forms, and a disposition statement. Since the deceased died intestate, the spouse would immediately inherit. However the deceased requested beneficiaries.

All of the above has been supplied.

The deceased would be extremely upset that her beneficiary wishes have been ignored, and the recurring stress of her relatives in trying to get this settled would be crushing.

The paperless statement status as mentioned earlier has made it even more difficult as Marcus/Goldman Sachs has refused to send any statements by mail, and the online account access has been blocked since the date of death.

I would caution anyone thinking about parking any significant funds or accounts with Marcus to think twice.

Next step can only be legal action on behalf of the beneficiaries, and a fileing with the NYS banking authorities if not resolved.