Stock Transfer related to death - Beneficiary is not a U.S. Citizen and does not reside in the U.S.

[Anonymous]

I have a relative (non-U.S. citizen) who lives overseas. Her father lived in the U.S. 30 years ago and had a stock account (~40k). Fortunately, she has the statement for the account so we have the account number, contact information, etc. Her father left the U.S. after a few years and moved back to his country. He recently died. She is the sole beneficiary of his estate. There's a will that indicates she is the sole beneficiary, and he had completed a beneficiary form when he opened the stock account. She completed the form for the stock transfer, but no one knows where the stock certificate is. The company sent her a form titled "Affidavit of Loss and Indemnity Agreement" which is required for the stock certificate replacement. There are questions on this form she is unable to answer.

The second issue is that the transfer form requires a "Medallion Stamp" from a bank with her signature. None of the banks she contacted in her country have a "Medallion Stamp." We called share service provider for this stock account and explained what while the bank cannot provide a Medallion Stamp, she is able to get her signature notarized at the U.S. embassy. They said a notary would not be sufficient and that a Medallion Stamp is required.

The call center for this share service provider for this stock account is very unhelpful.

Do we need an attorney for this? If so, would this be an estate attorney? Is there some type of financial organization or consultant who can assist this stock transfer?

[Anonymous]

Does your cousin ever visit you?

https://www.nationalnotary.org/notary-bulletin/blog/2011/04/medallion-signatures-explained?srsltid=AfmBOooTAwxpAmWxwGMzwlK-5laK7SMhVTN0n9DY1NvqAtmD2k63LPR_

[Anonymous]

Can she assign you a power of attorney and you do the stamp in your name?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your cousin ever visit you?

https://www.nationalnotary.org/notary-bulletin/blog/2011/04/medallion-signatures-explained?srsltid=AfmBOooTAwxpAmWxwGMzwlK-5laK7SMhVTN0n9DY1NvqAtmD2k63LPR_

Continuing on, it appears that medallion signature guarantees are a US and Canada system. Google AI says it's not available in the UK. Not sure what country your cousin is in.

She may need to come to US and bring a lot of paperwork to prove her identity.

You might call your bank(s) and see which of them offer Medallion Signatures. If there are staff offering this at a branch you can get to, you might ask them if they can authorize paperwork for her without her being an account holder.

[Anonymous]

I just did this as executor of my father's estate but without the international angle.

Finding a medallion signature service was a bit of a pain even in this country.

What information is she missing?

I recommend that she call the holding company back and talk to someone else. I had to do this with both Computershare and Continental and some people were way more helpful than others. I also got different answers about how to handle it every time I called. It was annoying.

Also, the form you describe is basically a way to buy a new stock certificate. I had to do that. It cost three percent of the value of the stock.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone actually logged into this account in Th past 30 years. The stock account might be closed and held by the unclaimed property agency of whatever state it was registered in at this point.

[Anonymous]

OP. Also check on Reddit. You typically get more input there than in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Does she have an estate checking account at either Bank of America or Chase? We were able to get our Chase branch to do the medallion stamp because we had the estate account set up there. It is a hassle even for people in the USA as most banks cannot do them.