Being overseas, it is very difficult, bordering on impossible, for us to open another USD account in the US. With all our savings in USD, it appears that our only way out is to move all the funds to the UK, converting the funds to British sterling, taking a hit of some thousands of dollars just to make the conversion (with intermediary banks probably taking a cut, and our getting an unfavourable conversion rate from our UK bank). Then, when we return to the US, we will have to reconvert the savings to USD, with another hit for the conversion. At least, this is what we have gathered from our inquiries with a few other advisors in the US.

Wells Fargo Advisors have offered us no assistance whatsoever, and have only warned us that if we don't move our savings out from them by 15 October, it will be something of a hassle for us to access them at all -- only by a long distance call, as far as we can tell (though, again, somewhere in the fine print they may have offered some other means). They will also discontinue our debit card which we have used for those same 20 years or so, even while our savings remain with them while we scramble to make other arrangements. Heartless, miserable. It makes us feel very much the fools for having trusted them at all. Please, then, take note.