Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Iowa

Re: Disclaiming POD accounts

Without a doubt. (Do not miss the 9-month deadline.

There is no extending it. A letter to your attorney is

not good enough to disclaim. A letter that arrives the

next day at the executor's office is not good enough.

This is a heavily litigated area of law and if you miss

the deadline due to some technicality, your disclaimer

is invalid.)

Who receives it? If (unlikely) other parties are

listed at the bank where the POD account is held, they

get it. If not, I think you look next to the decedent's

estate: a) if there's a will, then it goes according to

the will, as if your name were never on the account or [ better yet ]

you had predeceased; b) if there's no will, it goes according

to the laws of intestacy, only as if you had predeceased; that

usually means to your children, which, I assume, is the result

you want.

I know two real experts in this area of law in Indiana, both

in Evansville. Where do you reside? Do you want their names?

You should be cautioned that I'm not licensed in IA not only because

I haven't taken their bar exam or applied for a license there but

because I haven't studied their law ... in other words, I don't

necessarily know what I'm talking about!

The Federal disclaimer law (IRS code) requires you meet state requirements for

effective disclaimer, so usually a lawyer has to know the laws at both

levels. Some states have only a 6-month window, for example, though most

will give you the full 9-months that the IRS puts as a cap. Even my state has

a few wrinkles that make the state law requirement stricter than the IRS outside

requirements, and, again, both have to be met.

I've also assumed that you want to disclaim to reduce estate taxes in your own

estate. If we're talkin' serious money, you want to be sure that you're not

going to cause a GSTT (generation skipping tax) via your disclaimer

(but that requires something close to a million dollars to have been

given by the donor to each donee ... but maybe that's not a worry.

Tell me this, please: why do you want to disclaim?

Reply to [email protected] directly.

Stuart Williams

Law Offices of Stuart J. Williams

21 Walter St.

Newton, MA

02459-2509

[email protected]