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Commonwealth Bank charging dead customers for years, royal commission reveals

Deceased customers charged fees for up to ten years.

A Commonwealth Bank financial planning business has been charging dead customers for years, with some clients billed for as long as a decade after they passed away.

Evidence heard at the banking royal commission in Melbourne has revealed that Count Financial, a Commonwealth Bank subsidiary, charged deceased clients service fees for nonexistent financial advice.

The responsible staff were not reported to the corporate watchdogs and were only given cautions.

A document from Count Financial showed that one client passed away in 2004 and that their financial adviser was made aware of this, but that they were still being billed as recently as 2015.

In 2014 and 2015 the adviser was receiving around $65 per month in fees.

When asked about the issue in 2015, the adviser said that they “didn’t know what to do and had tried to contact the public trustee and had not heard back.”

Another client passed away in 2007 and an adviser contacted their spouse in 2013, but no action was taken and they continued to be charged.

The revelations come after another Commonwealth Bank business, Commonwealth Financial Planning, was found to have received complaints from customers for similar issues.

Customers complained about being charged fees with no services for six years, before the bank finally notified the corporate regulator of the problem in 2014.

The royal commission has made some startling discoveries about Australia’s major financial institutions, but Commonwealth Bank appears to have been hit the hardest in recent days.

On Wednesday the executive general manager of a Commonwealth Bank subsidiary admitted that the bank was the worst offender when it came to charging fees for no service.

Linda Elkins, of Colonial First State, was asked by a barrister ““it would be the gold medallist if ASIC was handing out medals for fees for no service, wouldn’t it?”

She responded with “yes.”

The royal commission hearings are still ongoing.

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