Guest Donell Posted March 19, 2012 Posted March 19, 2012 I have a 401(k) distribution request from a nephew of a deceased participant. He has provided the death certificate of his uncle, a State Letter of Administration of a Small Estate showing that he has authority to search for assets, a State Letter of Administration of a Small Estate showing that he is the personal representative of his uncle's estate, and "Affidavit of Estate" on plain paper stating that he is authorized to receive any monies owed to the deceased by the company the deceased worked for. The Affidavit is notarized but is on plain paper and does not really show an legality to it other than his signature is notarized. Can I distribute his uncle's funds to him based on this documentation? Or, do I need to get something more official showing that he has legal rights to the money. He says his going to deposit the funds into an estate account. I received a Plan form "Non-Spouse Beneficiary Distribution Election" form requesting a "lump-sum payment to be issued to him. Any thoughts from anyone out there???
ETA Consulting LLC Posted March 19, 2012 Posted March 19, 2012 The check should be made payable to the "Estate of 'deceased uncle'" and delivered to the nephew. Not sure if the estate has a tax ID number (probably not). In such event, I'd use the uncle's SSN. Not sure, but the tax id of the estate is likely the uncle's SSN. But, to your question, we know the death distribution should be made payable to the participant's estate. Good Luck! CPC, QPA, QKA, TGPC, ERPA
masteff Posted March 19, 2012 Posted March 19, 2012 What does your plan say? Did the deceased have a beneficiary designation form on file with the plan? If so, then you follow that. Otherwise, what does the plan say about the default beneficiary? Follow that. You now have a death certificate which triggers your process to determine the proper beneficiary under that plan. You then payout to the proper beneficiary. If you ultimately determine that it's the estate, then you can proceed down that road. You might review this recent thread as well: http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=50844 Kurt Vonnegut: 'To be is to do'-Socrates 'To do is to be'-Jean-Paul Sartre 'Do be do be do'-Frank Sinatra
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