PSA: Woman drains ex’s retirement account

[REWahoo]

That really cleared things up...

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan I give up, how about a clue as to what this has to do with this thread, or maybe I'm just completely missing something here.

I think the point was that the husband might have seen the partial withdrawals when they first occurred and intervened earlier.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I did not read the article, but from the comments, believed that this guy did not take care of his account's info until several months after it was emptied. Being more "in touch" with his money perhaps would have reminded him to take care of address and beneficiary changes, etc... Some people think that one should just put his money in a safe place like a renowned MF (pssst...) and walk away. I beg to differ.

Got it, thanks.

Yeah, the guy never had an on-line account to look at his 401k balances, just looked at the paper statements that came in the mail. After the divorce he neglected to inform them of his new address and his ex opened a letter addressed to him giving information on a new way to access the account on-line. (switching from SS# as an id to an id of your choice).

[tryan]

And the insult to injury is the IRS early withdrawl penalty ... yikes!

[imoldernu]

The wider implications of this are frightening. Over the past many years, with multiple moves, different states, and financial firms changing hands, the possibilities for fraud, and even honest mistakes, are very easy to see.

Old stock certificates, life insurance policies, savings accounts, bonds, wills, and things like titles, deeds and other documents... all are susceptible to loss or fraud.

Even going through a complete check of the possibilities is not enough... Copying, storing and keeping safe are all part of a major project to protect ones' assets, if not for retirement, for the estate. One has only to Google "Found Money" to see how many billions of dollars have been lost or forgotten.

In my experience, courts usually rule on the "letter" of the law and not the "intent".

[NW-Bound]

I particularly worry about my charge card accounts. Although I downloaded transactions of my AmEx card daily, I admit that I often do not look really close at them. It's my wife's job to verify the charges, and she has been doing that monthly.

So, out of the blue one day, an AmEx rep called me to ask about some suspicious activities. Two of them were Internet transactions, such as buying something from the iTunes store. I told the rep that I had not even visited that site. So, he took those off, canceled the card and sent me a new one.

I later looked at the downloaded transactions, and surely, these two were there, but being only a few bucks each, they did not affect the balance enough for me to spot right away. They could have been my wife's usage of the card too, as both our cards are with the same account.

The other day, I was surfing Zillow, and found out that I could claim ownership of my houses, so that a prankster could not enter some wrong info about my places. Paranoid? Well, they say it is not, if people are really out to get ya!

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski I think the point was that the husband might have seen the partial withdrawals when they first occurred and intervened earlier.

The exwife probably set up the Quicken autodownloads to come to her.

[NW-Bound]

What if the ex-wife did not withdraw the money, but only day-traded it and drove it to zero?

Recently, when I opened a couple of accounts, one of which was at Vanguard, the brokerages required a piece of paper from my B of A branch to certify the bank account, to and from which money can be transferred.

Of course, the ex-wife could demand payment in the form of a check. But then, she would forge his signature.

PS. This was in the news a couple of years ago. One hacker was able to log into somebody else's account, and used it to day trade some penny stocks to manipulate their prices to his advantage. He was tracked down and prosecuted.

[Brett_Cameron]

When first wife and I divorced the 401k was split via QDRO, Qualified Domestic Relations Order.

[ejman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I particularly worry about my charge card accounts. Although I downloaded transactions of my AmEx card daily, I admit that I often do not look really close at them. It's my wife's job to verify the charges, and she has been doing that monthly. So, out of the blue one day, an AmEx rep called me to ask about some suspicious activities. Two of them were Internet transactions, such as buying something from the iTunes store. I told the rep that I had not even visited that site. So, he took those off, canceled the card and sent me a new one. I later looked at the downloaded transactions, and surely, these two were there, but being only a few bucks each, they did not affect the balance enough for me to spot right away. They could have been my wife's usage of the card too, as both our cards are with the same account.

I thought about doing the automatic download of CC transactions into Quicken but after due consideration I decided to enter them manually and reconcile to the statement. That way I really look at each transaction. Otherwise, knowing how lazy I am, I would look at the balance, say something like "it looks about right" and move on without paying much attention to it.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejman I thought about doing the automatic download of CC transactions into Quicken but after due consideration I decided to enter them manually and reconcile to the statement. That way I really look at each transaction. Otherwise, knowing how lazy I am, I would look at the balance, say something like "it looks about right" and move on without paying much attention to it.

Not sure if you have downloaded in Quicken before, but downloaded transactions are held apart from the account and you can accept or delete each one. You could download and then match each charge to your slip before accepting the downloaded transaction.

[azphx1972]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejman I thought about doing the automatic download of CC transactions into Quicken but after due consideration I decided to enter them manually and reconcile to the statement. That way I really look at each transaction. Otherwise, knowing how lazy I am, I would look at the balance, say something like "it looks about right" and move on without paying much attention to it.

That is part of the reason I've been doing manual entry for years, and it doesn't take much effort at all. I also don't want to pay to upgrade Quicken every few years just to be able to download. The software seems to get more bloated with each release.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsparks2 When first wife and I divorced the 401k was split via QDRO, Qualified Domestic Relations Order.

Yea, that is what's called the "50/50". This guy got the "0/100".

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by azphx1972 That is part of the reason I've been doing manual entry for years, and it doesn't take much effort at all. I also don't want to pay to upgrade Quicken every few years just to be able to download. The software seems to get more bloated with each release.

I've done both manual entry and download - agree manual entry is not much effort but it is enough to make a difference for me - it is no contest - download is much better.

[NW-Bound]

Prior to using Quicken, I used MS Money to track my investments, but not expenses. I once set it up to download transactions such as stock trades and dividends, but then the doggone Windoz machine crashed shortly after that, and I did not set it up again. So, I entered data in by hand.

When MS Money went defunct, and I have switched to Quicken (there is no other way I can keep track of my stocks/ETFs/MFs that are spread out over a dozen accounts), I tried the auto-download again. Son of a gun! Now, I have fully used the software to my money's worth.

How much did I spend for travel last year? How much just for RV maintenance? Hot Damn! All the info is right there!

I think that to limit my expenses to a certain WR, it is important for me to know where my money goes, so that if anything bad happens to the economy and the stock market, I would know what, where, and how much I can cut back. And as my spending is somewhat whimsical and on the spur-of-the-moment, I need to know if I am on a ruinous path.

Auto-download is the way to go. It frees up my time, so that I can BS on this forum more.

[obgyn65]

I am planning to stay single. I have seen and heard about too many horror stories here in the US.

At this time, my present girlfriend and her daughter are the beneficiairies of my 401k and Edward Jones accounts. However, no one will inherit my accounts in Europe if something did happen to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Let's learn from this poor guy's mistake, and stay single and guard our financial identifiers. Ha

[Mulligan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obgyn65 I am planning to stay single. I have seen and heard about too many horror stories here in the US. At this time, my present girlfriend and her daughter are the beneficiairies of my 401k and Edward Jones accounts. However, no one will inherit my accounts in Europe if something did happen to me.

Same here. With same lovely lady for 6 years, eventually plan to live together as it will save her a lot of money (she doesn't want to marry, either) but not until everyone's little darlings are gone to minimize unnecessary conflicts. I have did the math and there just isn't any financial advantage to being married. She is in a low tax bracket and I am just on the wrong side of 28%. So that won't help her. I itemize, but it is right at the level of the standard 2 person deduction, so marriage would lose that tax benefit. Plus, I would lose an annual $2k tax credit, as combined AGI would eliminate that. No spousal SS are possible because I am WEP'd in the worst way.

[Brett_Cameron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Yea, that is what's called the "50/50". This guy got the "0/100".

Mine was 60/40 with me getting the 60%.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsparks2 Mine was 60/40 with me getting the 60%.

She got the gold mine, I got the shaft.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsparks2 Mine was 60/40 with me getting the 60%.

How the heck did you pull that off?

Ha