My dad's estate left the beneficiaries 100 shares

[MineralMan]

of Prudential common stock. Only stock he owned. What a PITA! Apparently, when Prudential went public after being a mutual insurance company for just about ever, they paid for that in shares of the company.

So, those 100 shares are worth under $10,000. You should see the hoops I have to jump through to take possession of that stock so I can sell the damned stuff and distribute it as executor and trustee of the family trust. I have a large envelope full of forms that must be completed before I can do anything with it.

It's the most difficult and complex chore I have left to complete. In many ways, it's more difficult that completing the sale of their farm property, which was already sold and in escrow when my parents died. Plus, the subsidiary of Prudential that holds the stock is not helpful at all. They sent me the forms I need, but aren't available easily to answer questions. I could have the estate's attorney handle it, but his fees would eat up about half of it.

So, I'm looking at shortcuts I might be able to use to get my hands on it.

Meanwhile, the rich folks are all full of agita about higher taxes on their wealth. To Hell with them all!

Feh!

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Good luck. Sounds like a mess. We had stock in my Mom and Dad's estate, they ...

actually divided up the shares of stock so each of us in some cases (over 30 or so companies) got 1 share, or 4 shares, or X number of shares. Kind of a pain in the a&&. So now I'm left w/ odd lots in quite a few companies ... SMH. One day, I will sell the whole damn thing, it's a pain in the you-know-what.

[MineralMan]

4. Well, according to my understanding from the documentation,

I can claim the shares for the family trust and sell them directly through Prudential's holding subsidiary. However, I have an excess of forms, so I have to figure out first which ones apply to my situation. The problem with that is that there's a value threshold above which I can't do it simply and, depending on the value per share, it may or may not exceed that threshold. I may wait until the stock goes down a little and blast the forms to them under the threshold and cross my fingers.

I think the key is to get ownership by the trust and then pick my moment to sell. But, to do that, I have to set up an account with that subsidiary in the trust's name. More paperwork.

It's enough money to be worth the trouble, but just barely. I'll do it, but I won't like it.

This is why I'm not in the stock market at all. It's just too much of a pain in the ass.

[soothsayer]

2. Heyyy, my mom's stuck with Prudential shares too, but they pay a little dividend

So I guess it’s ok for now.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, the dividend is small, but I'd still have to

do all of the paperwork to transfer the stock to the trust. I want nothing to do with holding that stock. I just want to sell it and distribute the assets between the two beneficiaries. There is no simple way to do that, apparently.

Uff da!

[soothsayer]

7. Yeah, we've somehow failed to even get them into my mom's name instead of dead dad's

There’s something hard about it but I forget why.

[MineralMan]

9. Well, when I figure it out and get it done,

I'll let you know what worked.

I've put this off while I dealt with getting their real property sold. Now, that's done, so I need to dig into that envelope of forms and figure out how to get it done.

Anyhow, I did enough to get the forms, so that's something. I have a reference number that identifies the account, so I have a starting point. Fortunately, the actual life insurance was much easier to deal with. Those forms are done and I and my brother-in-law are just waiting for the checks from Prudential. I had to help my B-i-L fill out those forms. He hates paperwork and gets things wrong, so I have to walk him through the forms once I get them done.

[soothsayer]

11. You're a champ!

[SharonAnn]

3. Just be glad it's not shares in oil leases. Have a friend dealing with that for almost 3 years.

[MineralMan]

5. Exactly.

There used to be a speculative oil lease on my parents' farm property, but its term expired, thank goodness, so i didn't have to deal with that to close the farm sale. No development ever happened.

[Rorey]

8. I don't envy you

My brother was the executor in several estates in the family. I'll always be thankful to him for all of the work he put into everything.

The last one he dealt with was the estate of an aunt who had no spouse or children. She had the foresight to basically have everything settled beforehand, arranging things so that nobody but my brother would ever know what she left to the individual nieces and nephews. Our sister didn't like that she didn't have an accounting of everything and, in her typical style, filed a suit to try to get the information. She ultimately ended up dropping the suit. I'm sure her attorney realized at some point that my brother couldn't be bullied or coerced into going against our aunt's wishes that things be kept confidential.

What our sister did accomplish was to become estranged from the entire family. I haven't spoken to her in over nine years, and neither has my brother. At this point I can't imagine a scenario where I'll ever see her again, and it's fine with me. I think family suing family is disgusting, and I abhor greediness.

Good luck!

[MineralMan]

12. I was very fortunate to have a family that isn't

arguing about things. Also, almost all assets were held in a trust, for tax purposes. The distribution is laid out clearly in the trust documents. Those have been shared with all beneficiaries. Four are my parents' grandchildren, who get a fixed amount in the distribution. The rest gets split evenly between me and my sister.

Still, the trust's attorney said that families often are in dispute, even when things are carefully laid out. However, everyone who is a beneficiary trusts me to follow my parents' wishes, which I will do for sure. He keeps telling me that he's amazed that I've been able to keep everyone happy and cooperative with the process. But, that's our family. They just aren't like that at all.

Under California law, beneficiaries have 120 days to file a dispute. That period ends next month, and the distribution will take place on a specific date, after which it will be done completely, as far as the grandchildren are concerned. There will still be assets coming in after that for about six months, but those will be split evenly as they come in. My sister and her husband know that I will do that without fail, so they're not concerned.

Even better, my parents had almost no personal property of much value, and everyone got to pick out the stuff they wanted soon after they died. What to do with the rest? Well, I cajoled the buyer of the farm property into dealing with all that, to her own benefit. She agreed, so everything else is still there. She can have a big farm sale, or call the scrappers, or sift through it and keep whatever she wants and get rid of the rest. We called in an appraiser and estate sale company. The valuation of the personal property was so little that it wasn't worth their time, so...

We sold the farm pickup truck and a couple of other vehicles to the buyer. She gets the rest for free. some furniture, household items, tools, equipment, etc. Good luck to her.

Actually, I'm still in touch with her on Facebook. She's pretty excited, actually, to be going through the house and outbuildings and finding things she wants to keep. She says it's like a treasure hunt. More power to her. She has found a couple of personal items that she's sending to me, as well.

[Siwsan]

10. I'm so glad Mom set up a trust fund, after Dad died

She put me in charge of the trust. She had also purchased some sort of insurance policies that named her 3 surviving children as beneficiaries.

Unfortunately, my sister died 3 weeks before mom. For some reason, my sister's share had to go to me and my brother, and not her children. No doubt it was how the trust was written, because mom never thought she'd be predeceased by yet another child. My brother and I didn't even have to discuss what to do. I rolled the insurance funds into the trust and have been incrementally distributing what would have been my sister's share to her 3 children.

Mom's house was included in the trust. My brother lived there, for a while, and now my niece and her husband are living it it while they do some updating. Once it's sold I'll divide that money and close out the trust.

I've learned a lot, dealing with my mom and aunt's estates and am pretty sure I have all of my estate bases covered. We missed 2 of my aunt's bank accounts and they still listed my sister and mom as her beneficiaries so I had to go through informal probate before I could finalize her estate. I have a great attorney so it wasn't too onerous, but I still want to make things as easy as possible for people, when I shirk off this particular mortal coil.

[MineralMan]

14. Yes. The trustee's job is to be fair with stuff, really.

Sounds like you're the ideal trustee in that family.

Our attorney is filing some sort of pleading in probate court to get their bank accounts into the trust. They are listed there, but that was never formalized with the banks. So, since they are listed in the trust document, there is a way to force them into the trust with this pleading and a court order so we can avoid probate. My Dad just never went to the bank with the trust documents. He was in his 90s when the trust was set up, and just didn't bother.

The attorney says that as long as nobody objects, the pleading will be successful and a court order will put the bank accounts "in trust" so I can collect and distribute the assets as trustee. I'm also the executor of their will. He said it should be no problem. The banks don't care, and the beneficiaries don't care, so there will be no dispute. The probate court also doesn't care (they're overwhelmed right now), so there's no reason for them not to issue the order. Or, so the attorney says. We'll see.

[Siwsan]

21. We sent certified letters to EVERYONE in the family

My aunt's will only included those of us who helped her. For probate, my attorney had to send a copy of the will to every one of her family members, some who hadn't seen or spoken to her in decades, along with info on how long they had to 'contest' the will. It was a real chore trying to find a couple of them.

Once I got the paperwork from the courts, the bank was amazing in helping me set up an estate account so I could distribute the funds.

The funniest thing the attorney told me was that they had to contact the family courts to make sure my aunt didn't owe anyone any child support! She was 98 years old!!

The only person who contacted me, during the probate process, was her husband's nephew's wife She was FULL of confrontational questions, demanding info that was none of her business. I shut her down, really fast, not rudely, but I worried she'd cause problems - even though it was her husband who was in the will, not HER! I never heard another word from her OR her husband. Not even to let me know they had received the sizable check from the estate. I had to keep checking the account to see if they'd cashed the check. Everyone else got in touch to thank me for handling things.

[badhair77]

13. I had to do the paperwork with my husband's share.

Fortunately my financial advisor is a nice guy and helped me complete the transfer to my ownership and our son as the 2nd beneficiary. I also have a Compushare account to hold those shares. But his medallion and knowledge helped me finish.

Every quarter when Pru pays dividends they include info on selling the shares. That might help you.

I found the claim for the life insurance was a bigger nightmare. The agent started the process and then disappeared.

Good luck.

[MineralMan]

15. Yes, I have to set up a Compshare account for the family trust

and move the shares into it. That's the first step, and the most complicated. Once they're in there selling them will be easy.

[badhair77]

18. He passed in Aug and I did that in the fall.

As things settle down I can get rid of them and simplify things for our son.

Thanks for letting me know selling them will be easy.

[Mr.Bill]

16. I can tell you one thing about wills from when my mother died.

If you really want to get revenge on your children for anything bad they ever did to you in life, make them all co-executors of the will.

[MineralMan]

17. Yes, that's a bad idea.

Fortunately, my parents didn't do that. They picked me, because I'm the most competent with stuff like that. I'm also the eldest offspring.

The process is winding down now. I haven't had much time to mourn, really. Too much work to do. I stopped my regular work to handle this. I may resume it, or I may not. We'll see.

The attorney keeps telling me that I can take administrative fees for handling the process. I just tell him, "No. Not interested in doing that." It's my responsibility, I figure.

I'm keeping account records for everything. I'll share those with the other primary beneficiary, my sister and her husband, once this is all done. I'm keeping everyone up to date with weekly update emails, as well. So far, so good. Everyone's fine with everything. That's what I'm good at.

[dixiechiken1]

23. This. ☝️☝️☝️ EXACTLY THIS.

Executor is a horrible, time-consuming, thankless, exhausting job. Total bullshit. I'm still slogging through my mom's estate and once this is done, I hope I'm never put in this position again.

[MLAA]

19. Hmmm get all the heirs to agree to donate to charity and let the charity figure it out 🙂 smile

[GumboYaYa]

20. You are most likely going to either need a gold medallion signature guaranty or

notary on the forms. You can go to your bank to get those. Your bank should be able to help you get the forms signed and completed correctly also. They are used to seeing these and know their way around the forms.

[Lonestarblue]

22. Since your parents had a trust, is there any chance they also did a transfer on death?

The form comes from the company and is filed as part of the ownership information they hold.

For anyone else whose parents own stock, it’s a good idea to have them do a TOD. The stock comes to the beneficiaries as of the date of death, and the sock price on that date becomes the new basis for tax purposes.

[JohnnyRingo]

24. So I should sell everything after I call 911?

I'll be leaving behind enough tangled ends.

[Rebl2]

25. I know

all about what you are going through. It has taken a lot out of me mentally and physically.

[panader0]

26. My dad had Alzheimer's when he died. I had three very young children at the time

and was swamped at work and at home. I had little idea what his assets and debts were.
Going through his papers I found a stock certificate for 300 shares in Silver King Mines,
a company in Nevada where my dad was from. After writing to them twice, I finally got a
letter telling me that the mine was out of business and that, basically, the shares were
worthless. I still have the certificate, it's a cool looking piece of paper.......

[Gore1FL]

27. What kind of account did they have?

I have a Transfer On Death account. My investments will be divided by the brokerage by the percentages I indicated. Outside of retirement accounts, I didn't know you could do it differently.

[FakeNoose]

28. Does Prudential ever buy back their own stock?

If they do it might save you some extra trouble. I don't know too much about stocks and shares, so maybe this is a dumb suggestion. It wouldn't take a lot of cash for them to take it off your hands.

[MOMFUDSKI]

29. So . . .

My husband's dad married an eastern European BARRACUDA after his mom died. He had $750K in an account at his broker to be split among the kids. 12 days before dad died the barracuda drove him to the broker's office and he signed half of it over to her account. Legally blind at that point. So after he died the broker kept stalling on sending my husband (he and a sister were co-executors) a copy of the account. So time to hire an attorney and the upshot was she walked with the $375K as the sister fell apart at the meeting with all 4 parties (2 attorneys and barracuda and my husband and his sister) and the sister did NOT have the balls to take it all the way to court. I so wanted to be in her place. I would have stayed on my feet in the meeting (psych advantage), been loud as hell, and gave them only 10 minutes to give it back or we are going to court and walk out/meeting over. But sister sat there for 4 hours and cried half that time. Fer Chrissakes.