When my father passed away, I began the process of receiving his mail and going through his paperwork. A check for the RND for an IRA he had through Vanguard arrived. I contacted Vanguard to report he had passed. Their company’s policy unlike the policy of other companies is that they will not deposit the money back into the IRA. This meant that I would I have to take the distribution earlier than I’m required to and be taxed at a higher rate. They reissued the check under my name which I deposited and I then transferred the remainder of the IRA into an Inherited IRA account under my name. I then got a statement that 27 cents in interest was left in the closed IRA account. I had to contact Vanguard again to resolve this only because I knew it would cause tax issues if left it in my father’s account. It was over 3 hours of time to resolve 27 cents. The problem is you have to be handed over to a special, Change of Ownership Team, that has very long hold times and you cannot leave a number for them to call you back. I finally thought that I was done until a 1099 tax form arrived for my father stating he was the recipient of the check that they had originally issued in his name (he died at the end of 2024, the check was issued at the start of 2025.) My tax account instructed me to call as the 1099 should be issued showing I was the recipient. I spent an entire afternoon again trying to resolve this. In the end, Vanguard refused to do anything to resolve the issue. My estate planning attorney told me “They do not know what they are doing.” I am left now to straighten out this mess with the IRS. I will be transferring the inherited IRA and my own personal Roth out of this company asap. When someone passes you should not have to go through this kind of distress. It’s hard enough.
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