What is the name of your state? California
My dad passed away a few months ago. I held his Durable POA while he was alive, and I am nominated executor of his will, with my brother as alternate executor. All of his accounts had named beneficiaries, except for his main checking account at Citibank - Citibank doesn't allow named beneficiaries on checking accounts. He died with about $16,000 in his Citibank account and no real estate, and all of my siblings and I have received our beneficiary payouts/asset transfers from his other bank account and his brokerage accounts and IRAs. We've pooled a portion of our inheritance into a joint account with my brother and me as owners, for paying Dad's multiple years of un-filed income taxes, and I have not opened probate.
In order to complete Dad's income tax returns, I need his records from his main checking account at Citibank. I've spoken on the phone with their Estate Services department multiple times, and I get different responses each time about what exactly I should do, but they boil down to submitting a Small Estate Affidavit either by fax or by mail, together with a notarized Letter of Instruction and other documentation (if I fax, now I'm supposed to have the notary attest that she saw the original death certificate). But I'm not interested in distributing the account yet - legally I'm not even supposed to until all of Dad's estate's debts have been paid.
Does this make sense? Two notarizations plus an attestation by the notary just to get the account records, and then again later when we distribute the account?
My dad passed away a few months ago. I held his Durable POA while he was alive, and I am nominated executor of his will, with my brother as alternate executor. All of his accounts had named beneficiaries, except for his main checking account at Citibank - Citibank doesn't allow named beneficiaries on checking accounts. He died with about $16,000 in his Citibank account and no real estate, and all of my siblings and I have received our beneficiary payouts/asset transfers from his other bank account and his brokerage accounts and IRAs. We've pooled a portion of our inheritance into a joint account with my brother and me as owners, for paying Dad's multiple years of un-filed income taxes, and I have not opened probate.
In order to complete Dad's income tax returns, I need his records from his main checking account at Citibank. I've spoken on the phone with their Estate Services department multiple times, and I get different responses each time about what exactly I should do, but they boil down to submitting a Small Estate Affidavit either by fax or by mail, together with a notarized Letter of Instruction and other documentation (if I fax, now I'm supposed to have the notary attest that she saw the original death certificate). But I'm not interested in distributing the account yet - legally I'm not even supposed to until all of Dad's estate's debts have been paid.
Does this make sense? Two notarizations plus an attestation by the notary just to get the account records, and then again later when we distribute the account?