Interesting problem re: inheritance and stocks

[mikes425]

Hello, my mother passed away at age 97 in 2020 and her Estate Settlement has been a slow process involving distribution of assets from a Trust, contingent upon sale of her home which is now pending. The proceeds will go to myself and two siblings in the form of in-kind stocks or cash. That is easily and readily accounted for by the bank. However, we realized in the course of all this that she held about ten stocks 'directly' -that is, outside of this Trust fund, for which she was receiving the Dividend checks in the mail - which were routinely deposited into her checking account for many years. We've established that most of these were and are- held at "ComputerShare" in her name - while a couple appear to have not been transferred there but rather, are paid directly by the Investor Relations department of the particular company.
The situation is, these stocks' ownership needs to be transferred in kind or cashed out. They remain in her name, and dividends continued to be mailed out with my brother, holding power of attorney, depositing them into an Estate bank account.

We will need to get these stocks transferred in such a way that each of the three heirs should receive 1/3 of the shares.

What is the process by which we go about transferring the ownership. Would ComputerShare or any company whose stock she held directly - have to transfer all of these stocks to one of us, or would they be able to do it in equal parts to all three parties? Would appreciate advice from anyone who has ever been in a similar situation, particularly in dealing with this ComputerShare firm.

Thanks!

 

[njhowie]

Go into the Computershare account or have your brother (with Power of Attorney) contact Computershare and see if she had set up beneficiaries for her holdings with them. If she had set up beneficiaries, percentages will have already been set up per beneficiary and distribution should be easy.

If beneficiaries had not been set up, ask what the easiest way to handle it is.

 

[disneysteve]

I just had to do this with my cousins’s stocks, though I was the only beneficiary so it was easier. The personal representative needs to contact shareholder services and they can get him the necessary forms. He will need to get Medallion Signature Guarantees for each one. I think when he fills out the transfer forms he’ll be able to split the holdings 3 ways.

 

[SecondCor521]

Computershare is a big company that holds lots of different stocks, so they certainly have a process for this.

As @njhowie says, if she set up beneficiaries, then any of the beneficiaries could go to Computershare with a death certificate and get their shares.

If she did not set up beneficiaries, then it would be up to whatever her will said (look for a "residuary estate" clause). Your brother, who sounds like he is the executor, can contact them, provide them with his letters testamentary or whatever her state calls it, and it would be his job to distribute them according to the terms of the will.

In either of the above cases, the most likely result is that Computershare will open up new Computershare accounts for all of the beneficiaries/heirs and transfer the appropriate number of shares in to each account (1/3 each or whatever). From there, each beneficiary/heir can leave the shares at Computershare or transfer them to a brokerage firm of your choice - Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, whomever.

If she didn't list beneficiaries and didn't have a will, the it would go according to her state's laws of intestacy. I don't know how that works in terms of estate administration.

...

A minor nit - power of attorney ends at death. After death, similar activities are performed by the executor once they are appointed by the probate court. So your brother is most likely depositing those checks into the estate account - which is proper and correct - in his capacity as executor, not as power of attorney.

 

[disneysteve]

Just semantics but your brother is Personal Representative or Executor, not Power of Attorney. POA only applied while she was alive. When he signs anything, he should be signing his name and then Personal Representative.

 

[mikes425]

Thanks All! Much appreciated. This is all very helpful.