[WSBAPT] Charity Distributions

[John Creahan]

Hi Betsy,
I'm a little late to this so it may have already been resolved.
This situation seems strange to me, especially since Schwab has already disbursed funds to 5 of the 8 charities, but I have a couple of thoughts.
You said that the three remaining charities are Planned Parenthood, North City Helpline and The Nature Conservancy.
It may be that Planned Parenthood and the Nature Conservancy have both local and national chapters. If so, so it is possible that Schwab doesn't know which entity is the proper beneficiary. I don't know anything specifically about these organizations, but disputes between national and local chapters are not unusual. Do you know whether the decedent specifically identified where she wanted to money to go?
As for the third, there is a Seattle charity called North Helpline. If she named "North City Helpline" as a beneficiary, Schwab may need to confirm that she intended the bequest to go to North Helpline. (Just a guess.)
Unfortunately, I am not particularly surprised that the charities have not been diligent about resolving this issue. In my experience, many (most?) charities have overworked staffs and little or no experience dealing with probate issues and these types of gifts tend to fall off the radar.
Finally, it is admirable that your client wants to make sure that the funds are properly disbursed, but it appears to me that she has no role at this point and I'm not sure that Schwab would be willing to talk with her. Very frustrating.
I would recommend that the three charities jointly hire someone (an attorney or accountant perhaps) to spearhead getting these issues resolved. Often all it takes is getting someone to lead the charge.
Hope this helps,
John

John Creahan
www.cairn-law.com<http://www.cairn-law.com/>
206-578-5877
Fremont office:
3417 Evanston Ave. N, Suite 312
Seattle, WA 98103


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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