What to do when a NBH Bank account holder dies

In writing, not by phone. NBH Bank states that it cannot provide a payoff by phone: you email the request to LoanPayoffRequests@nbhbank.com along with a signed authorization to release the information. As the personal representative, that means sending your Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration (or successor-trustee documentation) plus a certified death certificate, so the bank can confirm you are entitled to the figure. In the meantime keep the loan current — payments by mail go to PO Box 36200, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-3620, or can be made through Quick Pay, by phone at 877.877.0395, or at a banking center. If the estate cannot keep up with the payments while the home is being sold, call the Loss Mitigation team at 866.505.1468. Written disputes and information requests about the loan go to "[Brand name], a division of NBH Bank, Attention: Loan Operations, PO Box 410207, Kansas City, MO 64141-0207."

It depends on how the account was held. A deposit account (checking, savings, money market, CD) is settled by the Client Services and Solutions team for the brand division that holds it: Community Banks of Colorado 877.877.0395, Bank Midwest 800.867.2265, Hillcrest Bank 855.629.7618, or a banking-center visit with a certified death certificate and your photo ID. An account held with a corporate trustee goes to the Trust and Wealth Department of Bank of Jackson Hole at 307-732-3071 — the same team serves clients of every NBH brand, so a Bank Midwest trust client and a Community Banks of Colorado trust client both call that number. A mortgage or home equity line goes to mortgage servicing, separately from the deposit accounts. NBH Bank does not publish a dedicated estate or deceased-account department, so start with the brand division that holds the account.

It becomes part of the probate estate. With no POD beneficiary, no surviving joint owner, and no trust title, the executor or administrator has to present a certified death certificate together with Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the probate court before NBH Bank will release the funds. Some of the states NBH Bank operates in allow a small estate to be collected on an affidavit instead of a court appointment, and thresholds and waiting periods differ from state to state — the brand division that holds the account will tell you which document it will accept for the decedent's state. This is the avoidable outcome: a POD designation added with a banker in about fifteen minutes keeps the account out of that process entirely.