Legal Question in Employment Law in California
My married daughter worked for a major corporations for about 7 years. She was terminated as the position was closed. Since then she has died. The corporation refused to send her husband her share of the IRA. Please advise.
1 Answer from Attorneys
There may be completely legal and valid reasons the corporation refuses to disburse any funds that may be owed. For starters, it makes no sense that an employer would hold IRA funds. You probably mean 401k funds, but you could mean ESAP funds or any number of other things. If her husband isn't asking for the right thing the right way, he will never get anything, especially out of a corporate bureaucracy. Also, if your daughter did not properly designate her husband as the beneficiary of the account, for a 401k anyway, he may have to do a probate since the money would belong to her estate, not him directly. In short, there are any number of valid reasons the corporation is not cooperating. Without knowing exactly why they are not sending funds, and what the exact circumstances of the situation are, there is no way to tell you anything other than what I have just told you.