Page 2 October 20, 2016 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Obituaries Credit Unions Stand to Gain Mary Joan Sherrill born August 16th 1924 in El Segundo, California. Passed away October 7th 2016 at the age of 92 in Bend, Oregon. Joan attended Richmond Street School, in what is now the El Segundo Women’s Club and went on to graduate from ESHS, Class of 1942. Joan married her high school sweetheart, Robert Sherrill and together had four children. After making El Segundo their home, they opened Sherrill Pharmacy on Main Street in 1959, working side by side for many years. Her children always remember Sunday’s as family time, and in later years going across to Catalina Island fishing with friends and family. Many vacations were spent at Bass Lake camping and boating. After the children grew up, Bob and Joan enjoyed traveling the US in there Beaver motor home and golfing. Joan was very active in the community, belonging to many service organizations, including Scouts, Quota Club, El Segundo Children’s Hospital Auxiliary, Order of Eastern Star, Rotary Ann’s, and the Southern California Pharmaceutical Association. In keeping with the family tradition, she was very involved with the Rebekah Lodge, where Joan held offices at the local and state level and traveled throughout California and Oregon. After her husband of 63 years passed away, Joan divided her time between El Segundo and Bend, Oregon. Joan is survived by her children; Robert Lee Sherrill (Christine), Roberta Schannep and Ken Sherrill. Grandchildren; Tracy Weaver (Kirby), Andrew Sherrill (Kristie), Aron Billor, Adrienne Wampler (Brian), Tiowna Souza (Eddie), Morgan Alexander (Brian), Brandice Fitzgerald (Brian). Great Grandchildren; Meghan, Mady and Jackson Weaver, Evan and Lindsey Sherrill, Chelsea Marks, Trey and Zack Wampler, Brandon Durham, Aurora and Grady Souza, Emma and Drew Alexander. Son, Wes Sherrill and grandson, Robert Sherrill preceded her in death. Visitation will be Sunday October 23rd from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM and the Funeral Service will be held October 24th at 1:00 PM at Douglas Mortuary, 500 E. Imperial Ave, El Segundo CA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles or the Shriners Hospitals for Children. • from Wells Fargo’s Misdeeds By Rob McCarthy If South Bay credit unions are busier than usual, they have Wells Fargo Bank to thank. Credit union membership grows every time that a U.S. bank causes a scandal, and the latest uproar involving Wells Fargo is a whopper. It’s more explosive than when Bank of America wanted to charge customers a fee every time they made a debit-card purchase. Or when large banks received billions in federal bailout money during the Great Recession, then paid their top executives bonuses. Wells Fargo account representatives since 2005 opened 1.5 million unauthorized customer accounts, a revelation that is bringing down a firestorm on the nation’s third-largest bank. Customers are furious about the identity fraud committed against them by their own bank, and they are scrambling to locate any accounts or credit cards opened by Wells Fargo without their knowledge. Wells Fargo’s illegal sales practices and identify fraud represent the latest in a string of violations of the public’s trust by banks, says Dan Berger, the head of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. “To open more than 1.5 million likely unauthorized deposit accounts and more than 500,000 credit card accounts is despicable, and it’s flat-out fraud,” said Berger, who is chief executive officer of the organization representing the member-owned financial institutions. “Did the banks not learn anything from the financial crisis they caused?” he added. Credit unions membership has swelled since 2011, according to the industry. The growth cycle began when Bank of America announced plans to charge customers a $5 fee for every debit-card purchase. The Occupy Wall Street movement also demonstrated outside big banks, accusing them of unfair practices and profiting from the nation’s economic recession. One in three Americans belongs to a credit union, which are popular with young adults between ages 18 and 29. Even though the banks do a better job with smartphone apps and other technology, millennials as they’re called are, joining credit unions, which has pushed national membership over the 100-million mark for the first time. Millennials “like a cause and being part of something bigger than themselves,” Berger said. “They like the individuality, like the credit union movement.” Credit unions benefit when the public believes that big-name banks are ripping them off. Bloomberg News predicts the Wells Fargo scam “could help make 2016 a banner year” for the nonprofit credit unions, which replaced the trusted building and loan made famous in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” One member’s savings becomes another member’s loan - that’s how it works. The reality for the affected customers of Wells Fargo is they cannot sue the bank, either individually or in a class-action lawsuit, for the massive fraud it committed. Customers who opened checking and savings accounts with the bank signed agreements that took away their right to sue. They can take their claims of fraud to arbitration. Arbitration is rarely used and consumers almost never win, financial observers say. “Most of these contracts make it so that we are agreeing to forfeit our rights to file lawsuits against the organization. Not only that, but they often include provisions that outlaw class arbitration,” said a recent Bloomberg News article about the fine print contained in the Wells Fargo customer agreements. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and members of Congress have tongue-lashed Wells Fargo’s top executive for a lack of accountability for the massive fraud. CEO John Stumpf resigned from his post last week after appearing before congressional committees investigating the consumer fraud. Members of Congress were incredulous that not a single bank executive had been fired or asked to resign. The bank fired 5,300 employees who upper management says were involved. The unauthorized accounts generated huge fees and profits for San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. The bank, since the fraud was discovered, has pledged to make customers whole by returning any fees they were charged. Some former employees say they opened as many as eight accounts per customer, and they faked personal information to avoid detection. Not only were individuals targeted, but 10,000 business accounts were defrauded by employees who say they were under tremendous pressure from management to meet their sales goals. One widely read financial-news outlet questioned why consumers would do business with banks that have been identified as perpetrators of recent frauds. The report pointed to the 2007 financial crisis, the housing bubble, a LIBOR scandal, and even one Asian bank that got caught laundering money for cartels. “Frankly, it’s amazing anyone opens accounts with these institutions anymore,” Bloomberg News reported. “People probably feel that if they do get screwed or scammed, that they would have some sort of legal recourse. That would only make sense.” U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio plans to introduce a bill in Congress next month to restore customers’ rights to sue Wells Fargo and other banks that include arbitration clauses in their customer agreements. • Mary Joan Sherrill (1924-2016) “Credit union membership grows every time that a U.S. bank causes a scandal, and the latest uproar involving Wells Fargo is a whopper.” Like Us on Facebook
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