Class Action Suit question

[kch130]

My Dad passed away unexpectedly in 2020 and my Mom has dementia. Dad was an active investor all of his life. As his POA, Executor, etc, I get frequent mailings that offer participation in various class action suits. The problem is that I don't think I have any records that would tell me if they were/were not owners of XYZ shares.



Does anyone have any advice ... do I even respond or should I just trash the announcements? Are any of these suits ever worth pursuing ... I mean settlement checks $1000 or more?



Sorry, I don't have any additional specifics to share. Thank you.


Ken

 

[JoeWras]

I cashed in on one of these against Invesco. It was $170. Less than your threshold, but keep in mind it was based on my balance, which was not huge (I think somewhere between 10k and 20k).

I had to send in a lot of paperwork. I imagine if I had 250k it would have been over your threshold. On the other side of the class actions, you can usually check a box swearing your dad was an investor in company x, but you don't know how much. They will give a default trivial settlement in those cases, usually less than $100.

If you don't have the paperwork, you are probably SOL. You also have to keep in mind the settlement likely won't hit for 5 years or so. Thus, the estate will be open. I know that my mom and dad both have es-cheated money that totals under $100 in total for both, and the siblings and us agree we don't want the hassle of trying for a claim of $15 because they paid a doctor copay later covered by insurance.

 

[MichaelB]

As executor and POA you have access to your parent’s financial records. Depending on the brokerage there may be records going back 7 to 10 years, and you many find some record of ownership.

In addition, if there are old tax returns, either physical or digital copies, they might have details of investments bought and sold.

 

[COcheesehead]

If you have the paperwork, I have filed in the past in similar suits. I got anywhere from a couple bucks to $600, but it also can take years. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth effort.

 

[njhowie]

Does anyone have any advice ... do I even respond or should I just trash the announcements? Are any of these suits ever worth pursuing ... I mean settlement checks $1000 or more?

Depends on the situation.

Need to read the document they sent you and the total amount of money being allocated in the settlement...less attorney fees. There should be a paragraph or two which indicates the expected amount per share the investor could expect.

I generally do not participate in these. However, maybe 7 or 8 years ago there was a situation with a small company I had shares in. Long story short, CEO publicly states everything is wonderful on conference calls, etc. All the while things are really deteriorating. Anyhow, based on the number of shares I owned and the estimated payout, I jumped through the hoops...got back roughly $10,000 - essentially made me whole. Very rare that happens, but I can verify that it does.

 

[Texas Proud]

I have gotten as little as $5 and as much as $300...


I found out that the time needed to get all the information together and input or send it in was a LOT more than I was willing to do.. so I stopped.



One reason is that I hardly ever have a big position in any single stock... if I did I probably would do the work..


BTW, I wonder why they make us send in all the paperwork etc... they HAVE all the information that is needed to determine how much I should get and should just send me a check!!!