Deceased account recovery?

[curb1]

Are there any tax forms (Form 1040) that your father filled out. Line 32 (on recent 1040 forms) would indicate whether any contributions were made to an IRA. I'm guessing that this would have been before Roth IRAs. Did father have any insurance company that he used, or any other investments that might indicate a location of the IRA? I am still surprised that mother knew zero about the IRA. There would have been monthly, perhaps quarterly and annual reports that would have come in the mail.

I still vote that this IRA is non-existent.

 

[10011010]

Are there any tax forms (Form 1040) that your father filled out. Line 32 (on recent 1040 forms) would indicate whether any contributions were made to an IRA. I'm guessing that this would have been before Roth IRAs. Did father have any insurance company that he used, or any other investments that might indicate a location of the IRA? I am still surprised that mother knew zero about the IRA. There would have been monthly, perhaps quarterly and annual reports that would have come in the mail.

I still vote that this IRA is non-existent.

I wouldn't have immediate access to any of his tax forms, but I do plan to look into that.

He used to work for a hospital in New York state that eventually closed a couple of years after I was born that he had other investments in/through fwiw.

And as I said earlier, my parents divorced for a year or two when I was younger and all I can think of is in that time he took out a small IRA and left it in my name rather than my mothers. And then simply forgot about it. I did talk to my mother about any forms that she used to get and she mentioned that she did get a couple of things addressed from NY state that were in his name, they knew he was going to die for a long time so they got their financial houses in order before hand, but either disregarded them as something they took care of previously, or misplaced them. She told me this was years ago.

 

[Zigner]

Do you know if the hospital was a state run hospital, or was it a private hospital?

It's possible that your father holds this account with a government-related institution.

 

[10011010]

Do you know if the hospital was a state run hospital, or was it a private hospital?

It's possible that your father holds this account with a government-related institution.

I believe it was a state run hospital. It was Jamestown General Hospital in NY fwiw.

Earlier today I called the unclaimed funds office in NY and asked a woman there about JGH and if there were anything related to either my father or myself there and she said no after searching a bit.

 

[Zigner]

If your father was a state employee, then you should be contacting the state retirement system (if any) and asking them.

 

[10011010]

If your father was a state employee, then you should be contacting the state retirement system (if any) and asking them.

Assuming it was a state hospital, he would have only worked there for ~2 or 3 years after I was born. The alleged IRA would have almost always been an investment after he moved on from there. Don't know if that matters though.

 

[10011010]

As an update, I signed the contract. .

I am scheduled to receive a package from Molly with all the information about the account, what financial institution it is being held by, ect tomorrow.

Will update if any thing looks out of the ordinary, or if I can give LCS a good review.

 

[curb1]

Let us know, this is interesting.

 

[10011010]

The information still had not shown up as of this afternoon, so I called LCS and asked what was going on. She offered to email over everything that she had sent through the mail, to which I wonder why that did not happen in the first place.

Shortly thereafter I got an email containing a bunch of documents related to an account my father had opened with Franklin Templeton a very long time ago. I immediately called FT and asked if there was an old IRA in my fathers name. I should mention that the email docs had info about the account, my fathers date of birth, his social, the FT account number, a whole lot of things. As an aside, I wonder how easy it was for her to get those things? I would die if that type of stuff got out about me, but I digress. I explained the situation to an FT rep, to which he responded something to the effect of "We don't use that company (LCS) for that kind of service". However everything that he could confirm with out breaking any privacy laws, was exactly what I had received in the email, addresses were all the same, SS#, DOB, ect.

We eventually got to the point where he assumed I was knowledgeable about the situation and said that it would take about a week to look into my father's account and after that I should call back to see if I could be verified as the beneficiary. After he said that I mentioned I already had paperwork sent to me by LCS and I started to read the headers of the relevant documents, to which he replied everything I read off was exactly what he was going to send me to fill out, word for word. So it was clear that LCS was legit at that point. I assume he was new, or simply doesn't know about LCS for some reason IDK. I asked why the account had not escheated to the state, and he gave me a response I could not make out over the phone, I asked him to repeat and I just could not understand what he was saying. I'll just have to ask again before this whole thing is settled. I called LCS and told her the cliff notes of what transpired during the phone call, she literally burst out laughing at the thought that FT did not know about LCS, and that she knew I already had been confirmed the beneficiary that's how she started looking for me in the first place.

The next steps are quite simple, I get a couple of documents notarized, ship them off, and wait ~a week and then get a check for 75% of what the account is worth on that day. I effectively paid 25% for LCS to say Franklin Templeton. While not certain of this it seems if I knew about the account and just called up FT and waited ~2 weeks it would have been completely free of charge. So ~$1200 a word, which is beyond absurd of course. I do love capitalism though, and I suppose I should be thankful that I get to know my father thought enough of me to leave me something.

While a quarter of the value of the account is completely over priced for the services rendered I would have to say that LCS, and more specifically Molly, have been completely honest and professional during this whole thing and are clearly legitimate.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who has offered and opinion or help ITT, I really do appreciate it.

 

[curb1]

Let us know when you get the check (and cash it). I would find out why FT did not make contact and why no quarterly/annual reports were sent, since they did not know father had died.

 

[Zigner]

With all due respect, you are complaining about a service that you willingly signed up for. You KNEW how much you'd pay and you KNEW what service they would perform. Once you decided to accept their offer, you really lost the high-ground when it comes to complaining. That's just my opinion.

 

[10011010]

Let us know when you get the check (and cash it). I would find out why FT did not make contact and why no quarterly/annual reports were sent, since they did not know father had died.

I suppose I was not clear, they did try to send mail to my mothers/fathers address in KY after he died, she has not moved from that address since. For some reason it never made it/was addressed to me and was thrown out/my mom over looked it somehow ect. They (FT) then stopped sending letters as they thought that address was a bad one. And recently contacted LCS to find me. If FT would have googled my full name, which they have, and then the word address after that, they could have found me. But I guess that's not a legal option or something. And I will update when/if this is fully resolved.

With all due respect, you are complaining about a service that you willingly signed up for. You KNEW how much you'd pay and you KNEW what service they would perform. Once you decided to accept their offer, you really lost the high-ground when it comes to complaining. That's just my opinion.

?

I agree I knew what was coming, but that doesn't mean they still aren't vastly over priced.

 

[Zigner]

They're charging what you agreed to pay. They are priced exactly correctly.

 

[lady with cats]

Deceased Account Recovery

How is your claim proceeding? Have you gotten a check yet? I have been similarly contacted.

 

[10011010]

They're charging what you agreed to pay. They are priced exactly correctly.

If I take this literally, of which I don't think you meant for a literal interpretation, it is clearly a falsehood as "exactly correctly" would be the exact top dollar one would be willing to pay for a good or service. And in this instance I would have paid much more, something like 45%. Theoretically, without LCS I would have never known about this fund and should be willing to pay any amount that gives me any money at all. However, I think you meant that I paid their fees therefore how can I complain? They are still overpriced, irregardless of what I paid. As an example I pay for gas for my car no matter what the price is, practically everyone would argue the price of gas is over priced.

How is your claim proceeding? Have you gotten a check yet? I have been similarly contacted.

I received a check today from FT, I had other options (DD/Rollover within FT) but a check worked the best in my situation. LCS has been truthful about the situation to the best of their knowledge. Sometimes they were misinformed, throughout this whole process the rep. I was in contact with, Molly, has repeatedly mentioned in documents I have received and over the phone that it would take longer (4-6 weeks) than it did (~2 weeks) FT, in the phone calls I've had with them told me that it would take ~2weeks so I don't know where LCS/Molly got that, but I digress to the fact that LCS/Molly LITERALLY never picked up the phone when I called, they always call back later that day or the next which is beyond frustrating and unprofessional imo. This was over the course of a month I called them ~8 times, not once did I get a live person to pick up fwiw.

I am waiting on reimbursement for a small cost that I inured in the process of getting everything signed and notarized but I would expect to recoup that at some point, as LCS has said they will per the agreement I initially signed.

All in all the process was smooth, I did get both more and more accurate information about the process from FT than I did LCS, but everything was legitimate.