Throwaway account over here but my problem is very real.
I am currently 19 years old, from an emerging nation studying in Europe. My father has passed away recently at a pretty young age without a will. Feelings aside, this means that we have a lot to take care of with not much to work with. We (my family and I) just found out that he might have had some US based accounts {Chase, Citi and Amex (based on a spreadsheet found in his laptop 5 years ago)} and accounts in Merrill Lynch as well as Ameritrade. I have no experience with the US and I'm hoping the kind Americans of reddit could help me with this.
What would be the correct procedures to
- Check if the accounts are still open or if they have recently been closed
- How to gain access to his Merrill Lynch and Ameritrade accounts, would customer service emails be enough or would it be better to try to find a password and migrate assets from there.
- Could the procedures be taken care of from abroad (through email with a Lawyer's or a Notary's affidavit) or would they have to be delivered in person within the US through a court order
- What documents are required by the US to start up the process of recovering the accounts
- How long would the process usually take
- Could it be done in one go or would it be a case by case basis
More info: I have two younger sisters of which only one would be considered a minor in my country. My mother is still here with us. To my knowledge under US law all of us with the exemption of our Mother would be considered minors. None of the members of my father's immediate family are US Citizens or hold a US Green card or Visa, one is a Singaporean citizen. I do have an uncle that is a US Citizen.
Submitted September 23, 2018 at 02:09AM by avivahurtingjuice https://ift.tt/2MVPZQI
