I got a whole pile of letters from CapitalOne a few weeks ago, one for each of the CDs I had in my IRA account with them. Seems they’ve decided they don’t want the bother of handling IRA accounts for individuals any longer and are resigning as trustee! So basically each letter said they’ll be closing said CD, paying off the interest that would be due as of the original ending date, and sending the money to my choice of to another bank, or to Millenium Trust (who apparently don’t even offer CDs), or as a complete dispursement to me and have fun paying all the tax due at once.
Hrummph. Fine, be that way! It’s not like I ever wanted an account with your prissy bank – You bought out the bank I opened the account with!
I am on the board of several nonprofits where the 401k administrator and/or foundation investment manager has fired us because the combination of our IPS (Investment Policy Statement), amount of funds and fiduciary duty to employees or donors made it impossible for them to harvest $50k a year on $1M that they feel is the minimum necessary to put in the 6-10 hours of work it takes to service our account.
Invariably this is a result of small firm being taken over by big regional or national firm, and they want the Investment Advisors to focus on clients that are easier to deal with (less scrupulous about protecting the employees and donors interests).
I got something like that from eTrade Bank (one of those online only banks). I had one of their high interest savings accounts, until one day they sent me a letter stating they would be transferring my account to Discover Bank (a different online bank). I don’t remember the reason why; from what I can tell eTrade still offers banking services.
I had a 403b converted to an IRA and sent to them because I didn’t move fast enough. Not a fan. They have much higher fees than anywhere I’ve experienced and routine actions that I can do online with, say Schwab, require forms with “wet” signatures.
I’m not sure whose decision this was. The account was too small for either Fidelity or the state I was previously employed by.
To be clear, they are not callable. They cannot close out a CD in a manner that leaves you out of pocket. But there are not usually regulations that prevent them from giving you all the money (including interest to original maturity) early.
They didn’t actually close the account, but my wife got a notice from Wells-Fargo that they were going to levy a $1 a month service fee on a savings account that already paid no interest. She had opened the account to hold the interest they were paying on a couple of CDs that she had inherited from her stepmother. The CDs were originally in a Florida bank (Flagler) that, after 3 or 4 mergers ended up at W-F. They totaled about $70K. Her reaction was to cash them and take her money elsewhere.
I don’t have the original notification letter at hand, but I believe it specified only that they were getting out of dealing with individual IRA accounts, including both CDs and IRA savings accounts.
As in, they may still be offering ‘regular’ CDs, and they may still be doing IRA stuff for groups/organizations(?) and, my cynicism suggests, if you as an individual actually have what they consider ‘enough money to bother with’ they might be willing to make an exception for you.
