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Inheritance, especially stocks/IRAs
Jun. 2nd, 2016 02:28 pmWhen my father died, he had several IRAs. Each was not worth much. Maybe a few thousand, total. He had a broker who tried to help us. My brothers and I were specifically listed as the direct beneficiaries. So the stock should go to us, not to the estate. Which would have been fine.... Except that the investment firm absolutely refused to pay out to us. Dead refused. Threw up paperwork after paperwork block to prevent us from claiming it. No matter what paperwork we sent, they insisted that it was Not Enough. i swear I personally sent them at least 4 copies of the death certificate. Every time I filed paperwork with them and did not specifically include an original death certificate in the envelope, they claimed that they needed one. Again. Gaaah!
In the end, my piddling section of one account became an "inherited IRA." Which cannot be transferred to my investment firm (because my firm says the fees would eat it) and cannot be turned into cash (for no reason i can figure out, except that they refuse to do it). So my father died in 2004. Evidently the inheritance IRA account was created in 2005. And I think I last heard from them in 2006. Nothing in the last 10 years.
So my brother died and I started haunting Unclaimed Property websites in Texas and New Mexico. And I came across several unclaimed for my father. As my father's executrix, I filed for them. Weeks and several rounds of painful paperwork passed... I got a check and two letters. I split the check with my father's other heir.
And one letter turns out to be at least one of my brothers' (don't know which brother) unclaimed stock for the evil investment company. The company refuses to tell me how much it is for. They offered to roll it into my existing (Which I had totally forgotten about!) inheritance IRA.
So my learning lessons here:
- Yes, listing direct beneficiaries for your investments is a good idea. One human fighting for their money is easier and the outcome is clearer than the estate getting an account of stock. What is an estate going to do with stocks? Yeah, have a listed beneficiary. And backup beneficiary. And tell them, because the investment company will refuse to talk to the executor on the topic and the heirs will have to contact the investment company directly.
- In Texas, rarely is an estate actually closed. You can get a new copy of the Letters Testementary by contacting the county that the probate was filed in. Even 12 years later.
- Investement companies are fundamentally evil and will do ANYTHING to retain their money. Assume they are evil and will only let go of the money if forced to at the legal equivalent of gunpoint. I thought that if enough time passed, they would have to release it to Unclaimed Property of Texas.... which was right and wrong. Even after it passes through Unclaimed Property, the evil investment company retains the stock and refuses to let it go.
