Inherited Annuity Question

[Brdofpray]

Hello All!

Quick question. Five years ago my DW father passed away. We settled his estate, and are now busy moving forward. We just were contacted by a lawyer group, this week, saying they found an additional annuity that needs to be settled. They sent a bunch of forms asking for all sorts of information, including drivers license, and social security numbers. Of course they want to claim a finders fee in this process. They said time is of the essence.

As I read through the documents my scam sense begins to tingle. Has anyone heard of something like this, years after a death? Are there companies out there looking for this sort of thing? If there is an annuity out there, do we need this lawyer group?

Thanks for any insight this group can provide.

 

[braumeister]

I would be extremely skeptical.

But it's possible. First thing I would do would be to visit the unclaimed property websites of any states he may have lived in. That's likely to be where these people found out about it in the first place (assuming it actually exists).

If you find something there, you can claim it yourself without their help.

 

[OldShooter]

Maybe start here: https://www.fdic.gov/resources/reso...iled-bank-list/unclaimed-property-states.html

I would suggest contacting an actual person in your state unclaimed property office. Describe the letter you received and ask if anyone there is familiar with this type of thing. You might also try your state's insurance commissioner office, since an annuity would fall into their job jar. They might be able to point you to other resources or have experience, again, with this type of letter.

 

[MarieIG]

^^^

Yep. When an owner "goes missing" unclaimed property escheats to the State. There are third parties who try to make money on this when it's not necessary to access the asset.

 

[ERD50]

Your "scam sense begins to tingle"? This is setting off alarms and sirens and red flags for me. An unsolicited contact is asking for DL and SSN? No way! Might be legit (but a waste), but no way I'm sending that info off from a request.

As others have said, you can do this on your own. Probably easier than dealing through a 3rd party. I needed to dig up some info to claim a CD that went unclaimed for my FIL's estate - but you'd have to dig that up for the 3rd party as well. Just DIY.

-ERD50

 

[Slim11]

Find out where the anuity was set up and contact that group directly. The executor probably has to contact them. But they should, if you are a beneficiary tell you if they have or had an account with them and where it is now.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Try this website, it shows a bunch of small dollars owed to my son at previous addresses he lived at in that city, not worth the hassle in his case. It will also direct you to the state website to claim it.

https://missingmoney.com/app/claim-search

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I got one of these weird calls many years ago and they said they were calling about unclaimed money owed to my family member. The person was not actually a family member although I had known her many years ago so I said I had no idea who she was. I figured it was one of these agencies that track people down and then want a percentage of the recovered money.
I was curious at the time and googled to find she had passed away so I put her name on this site to find New York life Insurance company owed her over $100, they don't get any more detailed than that.
I just checked her name again right now on missingmoney.com and it still shows there for her and her husband who must be 100 now if he's still alive. He was at the time of the original contact but I felt really uncomfortable contacting someone that probably would not remember me and think I was some kind of scammer so I just let it drop.
Every so often I do think about it and I wish I had tracked him down and passed on the information to him.