How do I find a deceased’s investments?

alaneet

A relative died recently and I am executor of her will. The trouble is she hasn’t left any details of where her investments are. Her bank accounts should be easy to find, but how do I find other investments such as shares etc…? I know she definitely had money in various funds. We can’t get into her MacBook to get more information. Any advice would be much appreciated 

Voyager2002

Do you have a solicitor to help you?

There are at least two services that trace investments of deceased people, one of which will only accept instructions from solicitors.

alaneet

Not as yet, I was wondering if I could do it myself but suspect I will have to use a solicitor. It’s frustrating that we have no way of accessing her laptop as we know everything would be on there. 

Voyager2002

alaneet said:

Not as yet, I was wondering if I could do it myself but suspect I will have to use a solicitor. It’s frustrating that we have no way of accessing her laptop as we know everything would be on there. 

When I served as an executor we needed a solicitor to do some tasks, and she advised us (charging for her time on an hourly basis) on the other things that we needed to do.

If you look back through bank statements you will probably see payments to/from investment platforms.

Keep_pedalling

The first thing I would do is go though her bank statements to see if it contains any income from investments.

poseidon1

alaneet said:

A relative died recently and I am executor of her will. The trouble is she hasn’t left any details of where her investments are. Her bank accounts should be easy to find, but how do I find other investments such as shares etc…? I know she definitely had money in various funds. We can’t get into her MacBook to get more information. Any advice would be much appreciated 

Actually, you have outlined what will be a growing issue for executors, in the current drive towards 'paperless' transactions for the population as a whole.

I myself have switched off all paper based bank and credit card statements around 7 - 8 years ago.  All investment, isa, sipp accounts are similarly paperless.  Even matters such as car leasing, insurance, and the like,  have become paperless. So a bit like your Aunt all evidence of my financial and commercial  dealings are either laptop or tablet based. 

As suggested by the other forum contributors locating her primary bank account would be a decent start in tracing some of her financial and investment relationships. Ideally you would want her bank to supply you with a print out of all her listed payees as a starting point.

However it might not be enough to trace everything. As an example regular  investment income I recieve from Interactive Investors (II) is not identified as such, each receipt merely has an II internal reference number. 

Also if there is someway to access your Aunts mobile phone this may provide evidence of the exsistence of App based accounts, and even access to her email.

In my case I have a money budgeting app on a tablet which details all 17 different active accounts. Just have to work out a secure way to make this 'database' accessible to executors when the time comes!

alaneet

poseidon1 said:

alaneet said:

A relative died recently and I am executor of her will. The trouble is she hasn’t left any details of where her investments are. Her bank accounts should be easy to find, but how do I find other investments such as shares etc…? I know she definitely had money in various funds. We can’t get into her MacBook to get more information. Any advice would be much appreciated 

Actually, you have outlined what will be a growing issue for executors, in the current drive towards 'paperless' transactions for the population as a whole.

I myself have switched off all paper based bank and credit card statements around 7 - 8 years ago.  All investment, isa, sipp accounts are similarly paperless.  Even matters such as car leasing, insurance, and the like,  have become paperless. So a bit like your Aunt all evidence of my financial and commercial  dealings are either laptop or tablet based. 

As suggested by the other forum contributors locating her primary bank account would be a decent start in tracing some of her financial and investment relationships. Ideally you would want her bank to supply you with a print out of all her listed payees as a starting point.

However it might not be enough to trace everything. As an example regular  investment income I recieve from Interactive Investors (II) is not identified as such, each receipt merely has an II internal reference number. 

Also if there is someway to access your Aunts mobile phone this may provide evidence of the exsistence of App based accounts, and even access to her email.

In my case I have a money budgeting app on a tablet which details all 17 different active accounts. Just have to work out a secure way to make this 'database' accessible to executors when the time comes!

Yes, we are in a similar position having gone paperless too. We also have some individual investments which would therefore involve having to get into 2 laptops. I am considering just keeping an updated paper list of all the financial organisations we bank/invest with as well as our insurance and utility companies etc… I would then let family know where this list could be found.

poseidon1

alaneet said:

poseidon1 said:

alaneet said:

A relative died recently and I am executor of her will. The trouble is she hasn’t left any details of where her investments are. Her bank accounts should be easy to find, but how do I find other investments such as shares etc…? I know she definitely had money in various funds. We can’t get into her MacBook to get more information. Any advice would be much appreciated 

Actually, you have outlined what will be a growing issue for executors, in the current drive towards 'paperless' transactions for the population as a whole.

I myself have switched off all paper based bank and credit card statements around 7 - 8 years ago.  All investment, isa, sipp accounts are similarly paperless.  Even matters such as car leasing, insurance, and the like,  have become paperless. So a bit like your Aunt all evidence of my financial and commercial  dealings are either laptop or tablet based. 

As suggested by the other forum contributors locating her primary bank account would be a decent start in tracing some of her financial and investment relationships. Ideally you would want her bank to supply you with a print out of all her listed payees as a starting point.

However it might not be enough to trace everything. As an example regular  investment income I recieve from Interactive Investors (II) is not identified as such, each receipt merely has an II internal reference number. 

Also if there is someway to access your Aunts mobile phone this may provide evidence of the exsistence of App based accounts, and even access to her email.

In my case I have a money budgeting app on a tablet which details all 17 different active accounts. Just have to work out a secure way to make this 'database' accessible to executors when the time comes!

Yes, we are in a similar position having gone paperless too. We also have some individual investments which would therefore involve having to get into 2 laptops. I am considering just keeping an updated paper list of all the financial organisations we bank/invest with as well as our insurance and utility companies etc… I would then let family know where this list could be found.

I would expect couples  ( with children ) to have more options in ensuring continuity of a digital and actual paper trail in the event of eventual death of either party. Not so straightforward for the increasing cohort of childless singletons, of which I am a member.

Rusty190

Me too @poseidon1 but I've still done a list with all financial information stuff on it for my power of attorneys/executors of my will (same 2 people).                                      They just have a list of the banks concerned and the account numbers.            Passwords and amount of money in each account have not been disclosed but they both know where to look for this information and they also have passwords to all tech stuff.
I have the master copy at home and update as and when and they get a new copy annually. 

Sea_Shell

Can you take it to a local computer repairer (with documentation to show you have authority) to see if they can access the data.

I say this, because a few years ago, ours packed up, and they were able to access all the data and transfer it to a new hard drive.

I was shocked and glad in equal measure 😉

wmb194

Sea_Shell said:

Can you take it to a local computer repairer (with documentation to show you have authority) to see if they can access the data.

I say this, because a few years ago, ours packed up, and they were able to access all the data and transfer it to a new hard drive.

I was shocked and glad in equal measure 😉

The OP states a MacBook so they might need to talk to Apple. I know someone who was an executor who unlocked an iPad by taking, IIRC, a copy of the death certificate, probate and their own ID to an Apple Store. They can probably find more details about the procedure online. Perhaps iPads/iPhones are different to Macs but it's an idea.