Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Calypso
Sep 28, 2001

Grimey Drawer
Long story short, my brother died in September. He was VERY BAD with money. I've been left with a nightmare of an estate to deal with and have just been named the Administrator. I have a very competent estate/probate attorney, and things are starting to slowly proceed. One of the things I found at one of his houses was an IRA for about $6000 that named me as the beneficiary. So, I got the forms from the IRA and took it to my investment guy so he could help me fill them out because they were confusing as hell. I thought it would take him about 10 minutes, it took an hour, and he was like, ok, this is a bad investment unless it's a very, very small portion of your investments, and he even had a hard time filling out the drat thing, I said just cash it out and take the income tax out of it because it's such a small amount of money. So he filled out the forms and faxed it to them on 10/1/15.

Fast forward to yesterday. No word from them so I called them to say what's up. They said they had my forms, but that it's actual coins with $550 in cash as well. So apparently I need to find a Precious Metals Broker, hire them, get an itemized invoice, etc. This seems shady as hell to me. I asked why nobody had contacted me in two months and they basically said sorry. And before BFC goes apeshit on me for waiting for two months, my brother was a hoarder and nothing was organized and there was no will, and he had 7 properties in 3 states, as well as 17 vehicles and etc. up the butt. This is a very small thing in the bigger picture. Hell, just getting his life insurance was another trip down stupid lane, he told me I was the beneficiary, turns out I was listed as his daughter, so it was paid to my parents, which is fine, at least we got it.

I googled Precious Metals Brokers yesterday, as they suggested, and I'm honestly not sure this is going to be worth it for the amount of trouble and stupidity. I'm wondering if I just say send me the drat coins and I'll pawn them might be easier.

The coins in question:
(9) 2012 Gold American Eagle 1/2 oz.
(23) 2013 Silver American Eagle 1 oz.

Advice? Anecdotes? Experience?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

pig slut lisa
Mar 5, 2012

irl is good


Calypso posted:

Advice? Anecdotes? Experience?

I don't really have anything in this area that would be helpful to you but I can offer my commiseration for dealing with a complex and frustrating estate. It's unpleasant and the amount of work that can pile up for piddling stuff is incredible.

Calypso
Sep 28, 2001

Grimey Drawer

pig slut lisa posted:

I don't really have anything in this area that would be helpful to you but I can offer my commiseration for dealing with a complex and frustrating estate. It's unpleasant and the amount of work that can pile up for piddling stuff is incredible.

Thanks, and you're not kidding. Hey people, get a will!

Droo
Jun 25, 2003

Yeah, see if they will ship you the coins via USPS express mail insured for their value and then call around to pawn shops and ask what they pay for coins. You should be able to get just about spot price for them I think, and even if you take like a 5% hit it would still be a lot easier.

n8r
Jul 3, 2003

I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar
An IRA of actual goods is bonkers. You shouldn't need to 'hire' anyone to give you a written value on the coins. Any 'coin dealer' you bring them to should be willing to write something up / fill out the form stating the value of the coins. Uncle Sam insists on getting that tax cut, so it makes sense that you have to have some stated value of the goods. This was moderately interesting reading:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-for-your-ira-1309886856846

It looks like by the rules, they are probably not allowed to send you the coins, but they may not know that. I'd check see if USAGold or the other outfit mentioned in the article are able to provide the necessary value estimations by interfacing with the brokerage firm that is actually holding the coins. Your best bet will probably be to deal directly with the company that your brother set this up with.

You should absolutely not stress something like this with complex estate issues. I am currently dealing with my mother-in-law's house that she has finally had to move out of, and it's a giant headache. Just keep chipping away, and don't beat yourself up over what sounds like a pretty minor detail. Look into finding local resources to assist you on the estate liquidation side of things. The YWCA here has a pretty amazing estate sale program where you take everything out of the house you want, and they will go through and price/sell everything left. They do take a decent cut (30% or so here), but they can price things accurately, and they handle the logistics.

  • Locked thread