Interactive brokers in case of death

Investing / Brokers
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So recently we’ve had a death in the family and the thought of what’s gonna happen to my money in case of my death has been on my mind.

I’ve emailed most financial instutitions I use. I haven’t seen anything on here about IB and estate planning so I thought I post their reply in case anyone wants to save it for their heirs.

Dear xxx
Kindly note that only United States-based (residents) Individual accounts are eligible for beneficiary registration at IBKR at the moment.

For all non-US residents, once IBKR has been notified of the death of an individual account holder by the executor of their estate or the surviving account holder, the account will be classified as a deceased account and activity (e.g., trading, transfers) is generally prohibited until legal authority is established. It is important to let your relatives and heirs know about your IBKR brokerage account. In case of an unfortunate event, they will be required to contact us.

The documents required to establish legal authority can differ depending on the type of account the account holder has at his or her death (e.g., single, joint, trust) and the country of legal residency. These documents will include a death certificate and often other official documents such as a Court Letter of Appointment for the executor, power of attorney for transferring stock ownership, proof of domicile, and trustee certification. Physical documents must be mailed and signed in the appropriate capacity, they will be rejected if information on the document has been altered, or the documents are outdated or missing the appropriate court seal. For Probated Estates, distributions from a deceased account will be titled in the name of the estate rather in individual heir or beneficiaries.

Notification regarding a deceased account may be sent to estateprocessing@interactivebrokers.com or estateprocessinghk@interactivebrokers.com (for IBHK, IBAU and IBSG accounts only). At that time, general information will be taken and the executor will be provided with information on how to proceed.

The surviving account holder must provide us the death certificate and other documents notifying us of the unfortunate event. The surviving account holder/holders can call us on our hotline to know the steps to be taken for the account inheritance process but kindly note that the documentation for the same must be sent and done via an electronic format only.

Further, once an Individual account is approved and funded, individual account holders may add up to 5 (non-employee) individuals, such as family members, as users, pursuant to a Limited Power of Attorney agreement, and grant them specific account access rights (e.g., reports, trading). Please note that adding a user to assist with operating and/or monitoring the account implies no change in ownership. Kindly note that adding a new user on your account does not give them the rights to own the account in case of the account holder’s demise.

Please follow the below procedure to add a user to your account:

  1. Log into Client Portal.
  2. Click the User menu (head and shoulders icon in the top right corner) followed by Settings.
  3. Under Account Settings find the Users & Access Rights section
  4. Click Users & Access Rights.
  5. Here there are two panels: the Users panel shows those individuals added to your account, as well as their relationship to the primary account holder; the User Roles panel shows all user roles that you have created.
  6. Add, edit, or delete Users using the set of icons to the right

Regards,
Varsha A
IBKR Client Services

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There’s also the “Trusted Contact Person, TCP”. I can post what it said when logging into my account:

What is it about?
We recommend that you check the Trusted Contact Person (TCP) details in your account. If you have not designated a TCP for your account, we recommend you do so now.

Why?
A Trusted Contact Person (TCP) is a person who is at least 18 years of age whom we may contact regarding matters related to your account if financial exploitation is suspected or if we have concerns about your health. For older customers whose cognitive performance is declining or who have health issues, it is recommended that we designate such a person for their account. However, there are other cases where it makes sense to designate a trusted contact person.

Learn more about the role of the trusted contact person here.

What can I do?
If you would like to designate a trusted contact person(s) for your account, you can provide their information by clicking “Continue” below. Please only provide contact(s) who are over the age of 18. You may designate one or more trusted contact(s).

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It’s very important to have at least one trusted person who has access to contracts/information about all your accounts, properties, investments, etc. Ideally this should be the same person whom you designate to execute your will. I’ve known quite a few people whose various assets were lost after their unexpected death because they didn’t inform anyone about them. That is especially true if you have assets in other countries. The same thing obviously applies to life insurance.

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slightly off-topic question (eventually new thread needed), hopefully someone can help:

we also had a death in the family recently, and this person would have been the only one we trust to take care of our kids, in case both of us would die / be disabled. The grand-parents, living outside Switzerland and not speaking German, would be totally lost / out of depth. We do not trust anyone else in the family. So we are currently elaborating a very detailed will with the corresponding financial plan (private school, housing, private lessons, language trips etc) based on the inheritance the kids would get, until they turn 18.
After that, we would like to avoid that the kids get the rest of the inheritance at once (family trust?), it shall progressively finance their studies (eventually).

Shall we decide to designate the grand-parents to execute our will, who will make sure it will be done in good faith and that they will not be taken advantage of? has anyone experience with it?
thanks in advance

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Sort-of related thread, maybe it makes more sense to have your question over there, @Winti: Create a Trust for generational wealth and teaching about saving

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