How Do I Write a Letter of Instruction to Honda Financial Services?

Send it to Honda Financial Services's estate/claims department: American Honda Finance Corporation, PO Box 165007, Irving, TX 75016 (AHFC's general correspondence and payment address; it publishes no separate estate-documents address, so call 1-800-708-6555 to confirm where to send the death certificate and Letters). Lease buyout title paperwork goes elsewhere: email Honda@vitu.com or fax 937-481-5307 (Attn: Captive Client), or mail with a check to Honda Finance Exchange Inc., P.O. Box 70252, Philadelphia, PA 19176, or without a check to American Honda Finance Corp, Attn: Title Processing, 9750 Goethe Rd., Sacramento, CA 95827.. You can reach the department at 1-800-708-6555.

Honda Financial Services lists these among its required documents: Copy of the death certificate; Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, if a probate estate has been opened (an executor's authority, not the decedent's Authorization to Release Account Information form, is what AHFC needs after death); AHFC account number and the vehicle VIN; Payoff quote from AHFC. The prepared letter includes an enclosure checklist drawn from Honda Financial Services's recorded requirements.

AHFC publishes no timeline for updating a deceased customer's account, because this is a creditor notification rather than a claim. The published timelines are on the title: after a retail loan payoff clears, AHFC usually mails the title or lien release within 2-3 weeks, depending on the state and how the title is held; on a lease buyout, AHFC states the title arrives in about 3-4 weeks by standard mail once valid documents are received. Payments continue to be due throughout.

Honda Financial Services accepts a letter you write. We draft it for you, addressed to Honda Financial Services's verified claims department with the required enclosures.

It depends on the capacity you are acting in. An executor or administrator encloses Letters Testamentary (when there is a will) or Letters of Administration (when there is not); a successor trustee encloses a certificate of trust; a successor under a small estate encloses that state’s small estate affidavit. The prepared letter lists the proof-of-authority document for your role alongside the institution’s required documents.

A letter of instruction is the written request an institution asks for when settling a deceased customer’s account. It identifies the decedent and the account, states the capacity you are acting in, and tells the institution what to do with the account.