Medallion Guarantee Stamp

HelenaF

Hi,
A bit late in responding as the original post was in 2014. I am selling Putnam funds held in Boston and was asked to organise a Medallion Guarantee Stamp - a very difficult thing to do. So I called Putnam in the UK, explained the situation to them and asked them to contact their US colleagues to find out how this can be done. Options are through a correspondent bank but you need to know which banks are correspondents with their bank correspondents etc etc.
Putnams' foreign desk came back and said there was no need for a Medallion Guarantee Stamp. All I had to do was complete a redemption form and request that USD proceeds be sent to me by cheque to the address registered on my account. The next issue is where to pay in the cheque. This must be done by a bank and you may need to open an offshore account which can hold USD. A SICAV will do.
For those who are trying to get hold of USD mutual funds and USD cash held in the names of deceased loved ones this is slightly trickier. I worked on both my mother's and father's estates and I would assume that as long as the cheque is made payable to the deceased person, and is sent to their address then the executor can collect the cheque and pay into existing bank accounts of the deceased (as money can continue to be paid in, whereas money can't be taken out - accounts are semi-frozen at date of death).
As with everything you will need to hold the hand of the different parties to each step of the process as, if anything is non-standard, they will baulk at doing it for you. But the legal requirements are satisfied at each step:
1) US asset manager/custodian needs to send money to the address of the person in whose name the assets are held
2) Executor can give the instruction to sell as long as you have the right probate documents in place with the US asset manager/custodian. It may even be that with the probate documents they will agree to change the holder to the Executor and the Executor's address. Worth checking
3) Many high street banks can open offshore accounts and opening one with a bank that you already have a relationship with will make documentation easier. I opened an Executor account in both instances as I was also a beneficiary and I wanted a paper trail that I had correctly split assets according to the will rather than favouring myself. Some banks can't open proper executor accounts for really silly admin reasons (account name isn't first name second name) so I had to open business accounts and then have the monthly fees waived subsequently
I hope this helps.