I have recently run into a problem with one of my accounts that I was wondering if any of you could shed some light on or at least reassure me that I am not crazy. Sorry if it is a bit long but I would really appreciate hearing thoughts on how to fix this.

When I was about 10 my grandmother opened up a UTMA investment account for all of her grandchildren. Paperwork between my dad and I has always been confusing since I have a family name. I am the fourth of my name and therefore have the same name as my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather (except for the suffixes of course). Unfortunately, somehow when my account was opened the suffix "JR" was put on the end of my name instead of "IV". All of the other information on the account is correct including SSN, home address, etc. I have always included he income on all of my tax returns, and have access to look at the account online.

My grandmother recently passed away, and since I am of the necessary age to take full ownership of the UTMA account, I called Invesco to have them change the account to a brokerage account in my name only. I also mentioned that the suffix on my name is actually "IV" and not "JR" and that I would like to correct that on my account information. They then said that someone from account resolutions would have to call me back with how to change the name. At this point I'm thinking "No big deal. This should be easy". Wrong. The resolutions lady called me back after about a week and a half and said that since the name on the account was that of an actual person (my grandfather "JR"), it was the company's policy to assume that the name on the account is always correct and that the SSN is incorrect.

I calmly explained that my grandfather has been deceased since 1977 (over 20 years before the account was opened) and all of the information(SSN, Home address, online access, etc. showed that I was the owner, and my grandfather has nothing to do with this account. She refused to budge, and said that in order to fix the issue I would have to send them a medallion guaranteed letter of instruction saying that both the custodian (my grandmother) and the minor (my grandfather JR) are deceased, include an old tax form of my grandfather's showing his SSN, to transfer the money to a new account in my name (IV), and have the letter signed by the executor of both my grandmother and grandfather's estate.

To me this all sounds pretty ridiculous. My grandfather has been deceased since 1977 and was certainly never a minor when the account was opened. Also, the account information all points to me. I definitely do not feel comfortable going about their method of resolving the matter with the medallion guaranteed letter. Essentially, they are asking me to say that my dead grandfather was in control of the account since 1997 and get a bank to attest to that statement and accept liability for any forgery. At best it is not truthful, and at worst it is fraudulent.

Anyways, if anyone has had any experience with this type of issue before or has any ideas on what to do next let me know. I plan on calling back and trying to talk to the highest supervisor I can to figure out some other way to get it resolved.

It is a headache and seems like an easy fix but with the threat today of identity theft they are just protecting themselves and their client (you).

Probably Invesco’s mistake originally when they generated the account form. This why people need to make sure it is setup correctly before they sign and review their beneficiaries periodically.

[This message has been edited by The Lurker (edited 7/15/2014 5:20p).]

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I calmly explained that my grandfather has been deceased since 1977 (over 20 years before the account was opened) and all of the information(SSN, Home address, online access, etc. showed that I was the owner, and my grandfather has nothing to do with this account. She refused to budge, and said that in order to fix the issue I would have to send them a medallion guaranteed letter of instruction saying that both the custodian (my grandmother) and the minor (my grandfather JR) are deceased, include an old tax form of my grandfather's showing his SSN, to transfer the money to a new account in my name (IV), and have the letter signed by the executor of both my grandmother and grandfather's estate.

To me this all sounds pretty ridiculous. My grandfather has been deceased since 1977 and was certainly never a minor when the account was opened. Also, the account information all points to me. I definitely do not feel comfortable going about their method of resolving the matter with the medallion guaranteed letter. Essentially, they are asking me to say that my dead grandfather was in control of the account since 1997 and get a bank to attest to that statement and accept liability for any forgery. At best it is not truthful, and at worst it is fraudulent.

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I disagree completely with the second paragraph. They're simply asking you to verify that your grandfather was never the owner of the account (his SSN information will do that), and that you are who you say you are (the reason for the medallion guaranteed letter, and the signatures from the executors). Is the executor of your grandfather's estate the same as the executor of your grandmother's estate?

Why not just open an account as Jr, or with no suffix at all, with the same SSN, DOB, etc. and convert into an adult account? You can process the name change after the UTMA transfer has occurred. SSN's matter when converting/transferring accounts and the UTMA should have been setup, or at least updated, to include your SSN and DoB on record. I've never come across a situation where the Name matters more than SSN and DoB.

last poster has it right

you can open an account with no suffix - the acct with transfer b/c of the SSN DOB match

then add suffix

I work for Edward Jones and we work with Invesco, so we could open an account and transfer it with no cost. Also, sell and close acct at no cost. You can do this with any Ed Jones person. Probably just about any company. I wouldn't try to do it with Invesco, but have no doubt it would work here.

Thanks for the help. They definitely have my SSN and I would imagine my DOB is on record somewhere also. So I am going to attempt to open a new individual account (with Invesco) without a suffix, and transfer the money from the UTMA into this new account.

From there the end goal is to get this transferred to my Vanguard account to have all of my investments in the same place, and get rid of the high expense ratio at Invesco). My Vanguard account has "IV" on the end of my name but there shouldn't be a problem transferring since the DOB and SSN will match right?

I'd call Vanguard to make sure the transfer will go through before I take any action.

You could call Vanguard and ask but in my experience you could very well open a can of worms not unlike the original issue. I dont work with Invesco or Vanguard but, if you were my client and given what you've posted, I would make it work.

Convert the UTMA acct into an adult acct in your name, no suffix if possible. Then ACAT (account transfer) to Vanguard the assets to the already properly named acct at Vanguard. There will likely be some fees involved but they should be de minimis compared to the headache.

The ACAT process is SSN, DoB, acct number, client signature and acct name dependent. Does your signature contain 'IV' on some docs and not on others? That may be an issue if the right person picks up on it. If Vanguard has an issue with a name not matching they may require a One and the Same Name letter which is a simple one pager.