We didn't know that at the time, but since my parents went ahead and went to the effort of setting up the revocable trust and paying the lawyer, I'd like to avoid probate if possible, and hopefully the estate will be settled quicker also. Time will tell. Both parents are still living. I think all the accounts now have TOD beneficiaries except for the checking account which is still in their personal names, but we are making an effort to keep the account well under the probate amount. A couple of the accounts are titled in the trust.The original poster's parents are in Washington, where probating a Will is not difficult. So it shouldn't make much difference.
They don't have any accounts at Vanguard. I was able to easily set up trust accounts at Ally Bank and Fidelity. Capital One will allow you to convert an account to a trust account but the form needs to be notarized. IBKR requires a new account set up and then the personal account transferred to the new trust account. In our case this was going to require a new username and password. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks (my dad might have early stage dementia) so I didn't do that to my dad. The beneficiary on the account is my mom per stirpes. Hopefully it will all work out as I settle the estate as the executor. I have never settled an estate so I'm sure I'll learn a lot when the time comes.
Statistics: Posted by iln1980 — Sun Apr 07, 2024 12:02 am — Replies 61 — Views 4152