Several years ago, I had an elderly member reach out to me because his account balances were much lower than he believed they should have been. He was very upset and was asking for assistance. He wanted to go back almost five years on his account to find out where his money went. He pleaded with me to help him. This is not normally something I would handle; we are back-office processing, and it would normally be handled by our member contact staff. However, he had somehow gotten to me and needed help. I told the member I would help, but it was going to take some time to gather the information he was requesting. He didn’t mind — he was just glad I was helping. I spent several weeks gathering statements, check copies, and copies of transaction slips. What the research found is that his daughter, who was on his account to care for him and pay his bills, had actually been remodeling her entire house. She put a new deck on her house, paid her bills — all with his money. He was so hurt by what his daughter had done. He cried on the phone with me. He asked to close all of his accounts and open new ones, without the daughter’s name. I got him new checks, changed the address back to his, and secured what was left of his life savings. Although this was a horrible experience for him, he was so grateful that I took the time to help him. We were able to and provided him with the true people-helping-people experience.
This story was submitted by Cheryl Warfield, VP of Payment Services, Securityplus Federal Credit Union.
