Customer died on 8/16/24 having one account in his name only. We received death certificate 9/17/24. On 9/18/24, we received a WI DOR levy.

Our Operations department reached out to the DOR to inform them of the deceased status, and they stated we should remit the funds based on the balance prior to death. We also reached out to our state banking association and they stated that once the customer died, the funds belong to the estate and, therefore, the levy is no longer valid.

We have reached out to legal counsel, but have not heard anything back yet. Wanted to get thoughts on what others would do in this situation.

I would wait to hear back from legal counsel since they are the most qualified to opine upon state tax laws and state probate laws and which takes precedence in this situation.

I'm in Wisconsin. The levy was against a real person who is now dead. The estate is not that real person. WI DOR will need to file a claim against the estate just like every other creditor wanting to get paid. Seeing as you just got the levy, I'd bet the date of the levy is after your customer died. While it has been a bit since I've seen a WI DOR Levy, the issuance date to the date of receipt was usually less than 1 week. If you talked to WBA legal, they are correct.