Tantallon widow fights TD Bank to access husband's funds

A Tantallon widow says she has spent months struggling with TD Bank to honour the terms of her husband's will. 

“He said that money will be there if something happens to me,” said a teary Jean Lewis.

Her husband, Larry, was diagnosed with throat cancer last year. In January, he collapsed in their Tantallon home and died.

Shortly after the diagnosis, Larry made out his will stating everything should go to his wife, including his RRSPs and registered retirement income funds.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case as Lewis has had a hard time getting the funds and her husband’s final paycheque transferred to her name.

Since April, Lewis says people from TD have told her they would switch the money to her name and nobody has explained why it can’t be done.

Seeing TD’s ads on TV which include the tagline “Banking can be this comfortable” have proven to be painful for Lewis.

“TD’s new slogan for me is banking can be this uncomfortable,” she said.

Monday, TD told CBC News it fixed the problem.

“We recognize that settling an estate can be a challenging time, and we are committed to making the experience simple and easy for our customers," said TD spokesperson Meghan Thomas in an email.

“We have reached out to the customer to communicate that this issue has been resolved and apologized for any inconvenience.”

Thomas couldn’t comment on the specific reason for the delay.

Lewis is still leery and is going into the bank Tuesday. She says she’ll rest easy once she actually knows she can access the accounts.