Can’t find Beni
One of our advisors has a client who died and he has been trying to get in contact with the spouse who is the primary beneficiary. She would not respond to FedEx, he went to her house, letters, everything.
We were finally able to track down the contingent beneficiary but they are estranged and she does not know if the spouse is alive or dead. This has been going on for years, is there a way to do a disclaimer to the contingent beni since the spouse will not reply? No RMD’s have been taken so I know this will be a mess.
Permalink Submitted by Alan Spross on Mon, 2010-11-08 20:37
You would need to locate the primary to disclaim, but the 9 month deadline for that is long since expired.
All I can suggest is to check locally to see what the banks in your state are doing to protect their interests when a beneficiary refuses to respond, since she apparently is alive and has been located (?), but is just reclusive. Sounds like the time period for the account to escheat to the state may also be getting close, and if everything else fails, that is where the funds will probably end up. In many of those situations, proof of ID is difficult to establish and therefore many of these assets are never claimed.