Getting rid of worthless investments in IRA

[Guest Mr.Ed]

I invested in a company many years ago that was supposed to go public a long time ago but never did. I suppose it is now considered a private placement. I really have no kinds of records of this investment, except whatever FISERV says there is. FISERV wants to resign as trustee of this account, and this asset, because it is essentiall worthless, even though the company still exists. They have sent me a letter saying that they are resigning and will be reporting this as a distrubution on a 1099R for the full value I paid for it. I have been paying them over $200 a year to keep it, which is just spending good money after bad. I can't figure out how to get rid of it, and there doesn't appear to be any documentation I can use to transfer the asset. I would gladly give it away or sell it for a doller, or whaterver just to get away from the annual fees and not have to pay the penalty for distribution, since there is no value.

How can I get rid of this tar baby? I would gladly give this away if I could.

Please Help...

[J Simmons]

Mr. Ed,

You call the ASPCA and report 'Wilbur' for this.

You might contact a local bank in your area and find out if you could transfer your IRA from FISERV (aka Wilbur) to the local bank as your new IRA custodian, and avoid FISERV trying to report what you paid for the worthless stock on a Form 1099-R. Then see if the company will pay anything to the IRA for the stock.

[Appleby]

Do a search of 'worthless' for all forums, and you will find a few threads with possible solutions.

Good luck!