Death Matrix - Immediate Actions by Account Type
On a random day, you receive a call from the spouse of one of your clients. It's bad news. The spouse has suddenly passed away. The clients have several brokerage and advisory accounts and all of these accounts are titled differently. What steps do you need to take with the accounts? What are the documents needed from your client?
RBC has provided the attached Death of a Client Matrix. The matrix lists the required actions and documentation needed in the event of a client death, specific to the account type. It serves as a general guideline only, but should be a helpful guide for you to place the appropriate blocks on an account and to take the immediate actions needed on the accounts as shown on pages 1 and 2. Pages 3 and 4 provide guidance on the types of documents needed to distribute the account (i.e. death cert, Letter of Testatmentary, Affidavit of Domicile, etc.) along with various other steps that may be taken for the account.
Generally, most of this information is uniform acrossed custodians, so even if you do not clear/custody with RBC, I would recommend that you read through the document to refresh yourself with this information.
As always, any questions, please let us know. Thanks, Renee