what happens to a brokerage account if primary beneficiary is deceased and there are no contingent beneficiaries My uncle recently died and we are sorting through his estate. Each and every account he had has been in a different state. It’s overwhelming! Anyway, he has no spouse, never been married and no children. My dad and my aunt are the only living siblings. My uncle who recently died lived with my dad. My uncle had a $200k brokerage account where t…

Wells Fargo more questionable and hidden behavior – Beneficiaries ToD If you have accounts with Wells Fargo (banking and brokerage) have you tried checking your POD (pass on Death), TOD (transfer on Death), or Beneficiaries designations. I know this sounds morbid put we should set these and check them periodically. I have tried to check 7 accounts spread between banking and brokerage (why do I have so many, I thi…

You Need Beneficiaries for More Accounts Than You Think Here’s how to choose the right beneficiary for all sorts of accounts.

Beneficiaries of Traditional IRAs must pay income taxes. Given a terminal disease, Better to withdraw the balance of the IRA (10% penalty)and then gift that money instead? Large traditional IRAs could push the beneficiary into the highest tax brackets. Gifts aren’t taxed under like 7 million in 2025. Should the IRA owner take an early withdrawal and just gift that money while they are still alive? Especially if that IRA owner is only expected to live less than a year? What am I missing? submitted by /u/Aus…

Use this Thanksgiving to check your and your family’s Beneficiaries. As an FA I see many sad cases where a bene was not set up for a 401k and the plan is automatically assigned to an estate. This causes issues because a lot of plans only allow for a Full Distribution not partial’s that would allow loved ones to spread the tax hit over 10 years. This also can cause massive delays in accessing the money from weeks …

Wife and her sister are beneficiaries of their late mother’s IRA – Any “gotchas” to look out for? My wife’s mother passed away last year. Her sister was taking care of their mother when she passed. They learned that their mother has IRA accounts with an additional couple thousand in a ROTH IRA. My SIL and wife intend to split the value of the accounts between them. Are there any gotchas to look out for? I’ve been trying to read up on withdra…

What to do with checks made out to 529 college savings plan beneficiaries? My 3 kids’ aunt had a 529 account for each of them, and now that the kids are paying for college, she closed the accounts out, and we received a check made out to each child. I realize the amounts may be taxable for my kids (not huge amounts, ~2K each), but I want to make sure I handle this correctly. Can they just deposit the checks in their ba…

Is it better for spouses to jointly own vehicles or to list each other as beneficiaries on the registrations? As the title says my wife and I are wondering how we should do this. What happens if there is a loan on the vehicle? We have one with a loan and one withour. Located in Connecticut. submitted by /u/blindmike95