What a nightmare @Saiton, sorry to hear. I think the ombudsman is your best bet, even though it is a long process. That's what I had to do when I was having trouble with the CBA.

The trouble with calling Commsec is that you end up with some poor sod who has no authority to actually do anything to rectify the situation, and no incentive to care anyway. It's infuriating.

They do seem to take notice when the ombudsman gets involved though. Good luck

Yes the CBA systems are very automated - so frustrating.

https://www2.commsec.com.au/help/contact

I'm sure there are those more qualified to answer this @Saiton but for what it's worth I asked a friend that I seek a lot of advice from what they thought, and here's what ChatGPT said:

Summary of the Case

Claim:

• The person had Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) to trade on their mother’s CommSec account.
• They’ve been doing so for 6 years without issue.
• Recently, CommSec suspended the account without clearly explaining why, and has not provided a clear path to resolution.
• They now cannot open, close, or manage positions, despite trying for 5 days and multiple calls.
• They believe they’ve missed profitable trading opportunities because of this, and want to seek compensation.

✅ Strengths of Their Case

• Documented authority (EPOA): If valid and accepted in the past, CommSec’s sudden change raises questions.
• History of trading activity without previous challenge.
• Email evidence since 2019 showing account ownership and authority.
• Apparent lack of transparency by CommSec in explaining the suspension or what is required to lift it.
• Written complaint lodged with AFCA, which is the correct process.

⚠️ Limitations / Challenges

1. ???? Financial services don’t compensate for missed opportunities

• Compensation is typically for actual financial loss, not hypothetical or potential gains.
• You would need to prove:
• You were actively prevented from transacting due to the provider’s actions
• You had a clear, specific plan to invest in assets that definitively rose in value
• And that CommSec's action was unjustified under their terms

Courts and ombudsmen are extremely reluctant to award "loss of chance" compensation unless it is very clear-cut.

2. ???? CommSec may be within its rights

• Financial institutions are required to reassess and validate EPOAs and accounts regularly to comply with:
• AML/CTF (anti-money laundering laws)
• Regulatory changes
• Internal risk management
• Even if they've accepted an EPOA in the past, they can suspend access if they suspect:
• It’s outdated
• There's a mismatch in beneficial ownership
• There are questions of capacity or legitimacy
• If that’s the case, they are allowed to "freeze" an account until re-verification is complete.

???? Best Steps to Take

1. ???? Follow through with AFCA complaint

• You’ve already done this — good move.
• Emphasise:
• Lack of transparency
• Failure to clearly communicate the problem or how to resolve it
• Repeated suspension without warning
• The emotional and financial stress caused

AFCA may push CommSec to:

• Expedite the account reinstatement
• Offer a goodwill gesture (e.g. small compensation or fee waiver)
• Clarify their process

2. ???? Request Internal Dispute Review

• Contact CommSec and ask to escalate to a formal internal dispute resolution officer (IDR).
• Reference your AFCA case number.
• Keep written records of all contact.

3. ????‍⚖️ Legal Action (if necessary)

• If AFCA does not resolve the matter and you still seek compensation, legal action is the only route — but:
• Expensive
• Hard to win without clear documentation of actual financial loss (not just “missed upside”)
• You’ll need legal advice

???? Final Thought

The person has done the right thing by escalating through AFCA. The key now is to focus the complaint on procedural fairness and lack of communication, not hypothetical investment returns. That gives the best shot at meaningful resolution.

My Final Thought:

It wouldn't cost anything to email them every time you would of put on a trade. Once you had access back you could then tally how those trades would have fared. If it's a material profit and you wanted to pursue compensation you would then have a much higher level of proof that you had incurred a loss. For what it's worth my friend thought this would help but not guarantee compensation.

Good luck.

@Saiton I have EPOA for my elderly mum’s CBA netbank account and they told me I wasn’t allowed to log into her account with her password. So they gave me an account on my own that had shared access to her funds. I don’t seem to have the same problem with CommSec however although I don’t often log into that account or do much trading.

My guess is that there would be precedence regarding some elderly people whose funds were effectively lost through poor investment choices or day trading type activity that they are trying to stay clear of. Perhaps a grey area?

Good luck

@actionman - similar story, except in my case once they had a second certified copy of my EPOA for my elderly Mother-In-Law, after they claimed they never received the first certified copy (more likely they misplaced it), they added my MIL's accounts to my own Netbank login, and Commsec did the same, so I log into both Netbank (CBA) and Commsec with my own ID and password (unique to me) and have access to my own accounts, my MIL's accounts and another trading account I have with my wife. Both Netbank and Commsec also have the option to jump between the two sites directly.

However, in @Saiton's case, he did say that he set the trading account up himself a few years back, so I'm assuming it's under his name with access to her trading account, because they wouldn't have let him set it up in her name, or at least they won't let you set up an account in the name of another person these days and I assume it's been like that for a while.

I have however been completely stonewalled while trying to set up a joint account for my wife and her Mum (my MIL) or trying to get my wife to set it up, because my MIL has advanced dementia, can not sign documents, and has no drivers licence or passport. She was also born in England and despite living and working in Australia for the majority of her adult life, she has never become an Australian Citizen, so with no Citizenship documents, no passport (she travelled over on her husband's passport back in the late 60s), and no driver's licence, she has no photo ID at all, just a birth certificate (from the UK where she was born). CBA and Commsec both require photo ID with the person's CURRENT residential address on that photo ID, and she does not have that. This means that while she can leave all of her current accounts open, and I have full access to those as her EPOA, she can't open any new accounts.

I had wanted to set up a Selfwealth trading account in both her name and her daughter's (my wife, an only child and the only person in the will) , i.e. a joint account, to save money on brokerage fees, and to do some estate transfer planning for when she eventually passes, but Selfwealth need a linked bank account with one of the traditional banks, preferably one of the big 4, and the account name at the Bank has to be identical to the name of the trading account at Selfwealth, so that meant opening up a joint account with a major bank, which, as I said, I can't do because of the lack of photo ID. I've provided her medicare card, utility bills, ambulance bills, and plenty of other documents, but the lack of photo ID issue is always where it all grinds to a halt and can't proceed any further.

It has been explained to me that these new tighter regulations are because of the banking royal commission and because of some cases of financial abuse of the elderly by others, often by their own relatives, and the banks wanting to avoid any liability for such situations by trying to make sure they have their own backsides covered in numerous ways, one of which is making it particularly hard for people to open joint accounts where one party (or both) is/are using POAs.

The advantage of joint accounts is of course that if one party dies, the assets automatically transfer to the surviving account holder. That was something that my father-in-law tried to do before he died, so that all of his shares would transfer automatically to his wife (my mother-in-law), except he had used 4 different brokerage firms and had 4 different HINs and one of those had a single position in it, around $20K worth of BHP which was in his name only, so we had to go through probate to get that $20K worth of BHP transferred into my MIL's name, as he had always intended, and the total cost of the probate process was more than half of the value of those shares.

So it makes sense to use joint accounts to bypass probate and save all the money that probate costs, but the banks are making it more and more difficult to open joint accounts - particularly with elderly people who don't have the same ID options as younger people.

Not much of that has much to do with @Saiton's case, however I just thought I'd share that I'm also having trouble with CBA, albeit slightly different issues.

The Banking Ombudsman (mentioned by @Strawman) sounds like one of the best courses of action to me. Another one could be your local MP or Senator, especially if they aren't Labor, because MPs and Senator's seem to be more motivated to stir the pot when they're NOT the party in power. They likely have more time on their hands also.

+1 for AFCA. Although my complaint with ANZ involving an ePOA is in month 10 of the process and only now sitting awaiting a final decision maker.

The financial instuitions are unhelpful in general, but in particular around ePOA and potential elder abuse.

Such a nightmare that I assume didn't exist when more local branches existed, and one could eye ball a local human. Our nearest bank branch is 2h drive away..

Interesting discussion

Maybe ask Bill Beaumont? ;)

He has a lot of DVP shares under his father's estate I believe.... Often wondered how he is so advanced in knowledge of finance.

It's a rhetorical question btw but think it is worth research how the whales do it.

I'm not going to defend CommSec or any of the financial institution because after dealing with my parents estates, I know how frustrating they can be, but to play devil's advocate, an enduring power of attorney allows you to act on someone else's behalf, with the emphasis on ON THEIR BEHALF. Yes you have the right to act of their behalf, but it comes with the responsibility to act in their best interest, which may be interpreted as acting as they would if they were still capable. Perhaps CommSec has decided that the actions taken on her account are not in keeping with how she would have administered it herself? Unfortunately, in this instance, a good track record of returns does not equate to administering the account in someone's best interest if the powers that be decide that that best interest means preserving capital in "safe" investments.

Perhaps CommSec is thinking along these lines?

Hopefully you can get a resolution soon.

But then again, when we authorised CommSec to sell some shares from my dads estate, rather than withdraw the agreed fee, they drained the entire account to the last cent, which we had to fight to recover, so I'd never rule against gross incompetence!