Consumer Confidential: Sorry your dad's dead. Mind if we hang on to his money?

"Losing someone can be stressful," Bank of America's Estate Services division says online. "Rest assured we're here to help."

Or not.

Bob Carter Jr., a longtime BofA customer, needed the bank's help after his father, also a BofA customer, passed away in April.

All he got, he says, is months of stonewalling.

Carter's dad, an Alhambra, California resident, had about $24,000 in his checking account when he died at the age of 89. In most cases, next of kin can obtain such funds by submitting a death certificate and a few other forms.

But Carter,