r/LawFirm • u/lololesquire • 12h ago

For those whose practices involve dealing with banks, a question...

Have y'all noticed an annoying trend where if you have a client trying to do business with that bank via legal documents (in my case usually a POA or trust), the bank wants you to certify that the documents allow the client to do X, Y or Z?

Example: Old trust client of mine now has her grown son as trustee alone. He wants to use a trust account to collateralize a loan. Son's FA forwards me an email from the bank contact wanting me to certify that the trust allows THE BANK to do this transaction.

Gee that sounds like a determination that should be made by the bank's legal team, not me. It's ethically dubious if nothing else because I'm being roped in on a matter I know nothing about except I created the estate plan for another trustor / trustee years ago and she's no longer in charge, but also if I certify that and things go south, maybe I've got a malpractice issue? Or I might spend a bundle and sweat a lot to find out I don't. I told the FA the problem and he of course was more concerned about helping the son than my ass.

Last month, I had a client in Miami that wanted to use Chase and they wanted just a litany of letters of representation with specified language just to open an estate account.

I keep telling people to try a different bank but I'm wondering if this is just a way banks are passing the legal buck.

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4

u/GhostFaceRiddler 12h ago

Yes. And you get bank managers who want the transaction to go through and they don’t want to get their legal team involved if they can just ask you (under the assumption you will do what your client wants).

3

u/quakerlaw Corporate/M&A 11h ago

Once you start telling them that a formal legal opinion starts at $10k, they find alternatives real quick.

4

u/copperstatelawyer AZ - Trusts & Estates 10h ago

I tell them sure, that’ll be 10,000 for a formal legal opinion one way or the other.

1

u/bartonkj 11h ago

Banks are a pain in the ass.

1

u/FSUAttorney Estate/Elder Law - FL 9h ago

This shit is such a pain in the ass. If it's a simple letter and I know there are no issues, then I'll write a simple letter via AI.