Error when beneficiary Changed by Custodian
I have a client with a problem that I’ve never encountered before in my career. he has some accounts with me and some accounts on the do it yourself variety through one of the national custodians. About 12 months ago the client and his spouse changed their beneficiaries on their IRAs with the do it yourself company, with the primary reading each other, and the contingent to their five siblings. The couple has no children. The couple did this in the custodians office with the employee who works at that office. They did all of the beneficiary changes online and the client was not given any printouts. They had some trouble when they were doing it in the office with system locking up and they were forced to start over several times. Eventually they thought it was all taken care of. Fast forward to this year and the spouse has passed away, and my client finds out that the whole IRA is payable to the five siblings named and nothing to him as spouse. The custodian is working on a solution, but so far have come up with nothing. they have told him that it’s possible that he will need to have the five siblings sign off as well as their children and grandchildren stating that they do not want to inherit the IRA. They’re still looking into other solutions and we’re hoping for a favorable outcome. My client was going through a stressful time for the whole past year with his wife’s declining health so I can certainly understand the stress he was under and not realizing that he should recheck this. Has anyone ever encountered something like this or what would your suggestions be to help him?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2024-01-30 19:41