[WSBAPT] Charity Distributions

[Diane J. Kiepe]

Betsy,

If it were me, I would rally the 3 charities to send a joint letter indicating that they expect payment by Date X and they should be advised of any paperwork needed to carry out the proper distribution.  I would then add if Date X comes and goes the charities will have no choice but to ask the court to intervene.

It sounds like the SuperWill statute was utilized in the Will (although I don’t have all the facts as to timing etc.) and Schwab should recognize that.  These charities all have legal departments or could easily work with you – these larger financial institutions are often going rouge and I personally am starting to believe it is either incompetence or bad faith – neither of which are good.

I am not sure she has standing to enforce payment at this point (although maybe she retains standing because she worked with Schwab to a large degree); to claim the funds in the superior court (if it gets that far) the charities will have to be involved, so I’d call them in  now.

Just an off the cuff response 😉

Diane J. Kiepe

Diane J. Kiepe
Douglas Eden
717 W. Sprague Ave.
Suite 1500
Spokane, WA  99201
djkiepe at depdslaw.com<mailto:djkiepe at depdslaw.com>
509-455-5300

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of betsy at bwattorney.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 11:04 AM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Cc: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] Charity Distributions

Hi all,

I have a situation that seems unusual to me, but that perhaps some of you have encountered before.  Client was named PR in the Will and beneficiary on the Schwab IRA account.  Client also received the residue of the estate.  The Will specifically called out the Schwab IRA account to be divided amongst 8 different charities.  The 8 different charities were also the alternate beneficiary on the Schwab IRA beneficiary designation forms.

Decedent orally informed Client that it was important to him that the Schwab IRA go to the charities, and she wants to honor that wish.  Schwab had her decline her beneficiary designation so that the 8 charities alternate beneficiary designation would control.  That was in December of 2019.  Ever since then, client has worked constantly to try and get Schwab to disperse the money to the charities.  She succeeded with 5 of the charities, but has spent almost a year now, with no luck so far, trying to get the remaining money to the last 3 charities.  The three charities are Planned Parenthood, North City Helpline and The Nature Conservancy.  Schwab has closed the file on her at least three times without dispersing; she has had to call and escalate the call to finally get someone to recognize that they have not yet dispersed and to reopen the file.  There is excessive finger pointing- Schwab claims the charities have not filled out the paperwork, the charities say they haven’t received it, then everyone stops trying.  This is very frustrating for client because she wants to be at peace with knowing that Decedent’s money got to the charities and it is enough money ($125,000 left to be divided in thirds) that she doesn’t want to just give up.  She wants to either reclaim the money as her own (I don’t think she can do this but maybe someone knows of a rule where a gift is abandoned if not claimed within a certain time frame?), Schwab tells her she cannot do this, or she wants to accomplish the distributions.  She has been calling and writing a letter campaign to these institutions for a year now.  Any thoughts or ideas for her?  The Washington probate is already closed, but she could reopen it.

It seems that Schwab should be motivated to get the money out its door to the beneficiaries and the charities should be motivated to receive their money.  What am I missing?

Thanks,

Betsy


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