The Grinches at JPMorgan doubled down on their refusal to pay out a pension to the widow of a former worker who has been battling the monetary large for the cash for greater than a decade, the Publish has discovered.
Elaine Silverberg, 73, has been begging the Jamie Dimon-led financial institution at hand over her husband Mel’s $331-a-week pension pot in a spat over lacking documentation for 13 years, as The Publish solely reported final month.
However America’s greatest lender has repeatedly denied her declare – and dug in its heels but once more this vacation season, a supply informed The Publish on Friday.
An insider on the world banking powerhouse, whose income surpassed $12 billion within the third quarter of this yr amid a surge in funding banking charges, stated there was “no change” to its Scrooge-like stance that Silverberg isn’t entitled to a cent.
Sources on the Wall Avenue titan insisted the financial institution had carried out “a full and fair review” of her case “multiple times.”
Silverberg’s husband, Mel, died unexpectedly of a number of organ failure on the age of 43 in 1988.
He had labored for a decade as a techniques analyst at Chase Manhattan Financial institution till 1979.
Chase Manhattan went on to merge with JPMorgan in 2000.
JPMorgan Chase acknowledges that her husband earned a vested retirement bundle earlier than leaving the financial institution.
However the financial institution additionally stated that didn’t fill out a type that elected her to profit from his pension upon his loss of life.
The Ronald Reagan administration handed the Retirement Fairness Act in 1984 so spouses like Elaine would robotically profit if their family members died.
“Based on a law change after he left the firm, he could have made an election for a survivor benefit. The firm has no record of him making that election,” the JPMorgan insider stated.
Mel’s totally vested money pile is presently value an estimated $53,000, Silverberg stated.
“I can’t find a lawyer who will want to sue JPMorgan Chase for the amount of money that this case would generate for them,” she stated. “I just have to hope for their goodwill in the spirit of the season.”
A JPMorgan spokesman declined to remark.
Silverberg, who was simply 37 on the time of Mel’s loss of life and raised their three children alone, stated that the worldwide banking powerhouse gave her the chilly shoulder after the Publish’s story final month.
“I’m very disappointed that no one replied in any way. No one got back to me, no one offered any kind of an explanation. It has been deafening silence,” the retired authorities administrator defined.
“I always thought that if Jamie Dimon found out about this he would want to do the right thing and honor the pension,” she added, referring to the 68-year-old Queens native who has been CEO of JP Morgan since 2006 and raked in $36 million final yr.
The grandmother of eight described how Mel would volunteer to work nights and weekends whereas she took care of their younger household.
“He was a staff participant after they wanted him. He was at all times there for them, she stated.
The financial institution claims it wrote to Mel on three separate events after he had stepped down, however Elaine says none of that correspondence ever arrived on the household residence.
She stated pension managers can solely dig up documentation that they are saying proves they contacted Mel in 1990 — two years after he died.
“They never furnished any proof that they had tried to reach him three times,” she informed the Publish.
Silverberg, who as soon as enlisted New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and ex-Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel to battle in her nook, urged the Wall Avenue large to again down forward of the forthcoming vacation season.
“It is the time of the year that companies are very generous to their employees and their staff and their higher-ups, and maybe they’ll decide that this is the time to do the right thing,” she stated. “They’re punishing my family based on the technicality that they created.”
