Estate IRA/tax question (not inheritance related)

[zizibet]

                                                                         My mother died close to the end of last year, and I am trying to finalize everything with her estate, and I've run into a snag w/r/t/ her taxes. I am the executor per her will. Her estate was not large enough to trigger probate in the state where she lived. She had an IRA account that I was not the beneficiary on, so the financial planner that set it up for her will not talk to me about the account. I had her taxes done at a local H&R Block by their estate tax specialist, and because I did not have tax documentation for the account, she used the year-end statement. However, she can't tell from that what happened to the dividends from that account- if they were being re-invested, or if my mom was getting them as income. 
                                                                         So far all the paperwork I have received has been addressed to my mom's estate, mailed to her address, and then forwarded to me by the post office- they will not send anything to me directly. I received one tax form for another account that she had been drawing on, but not this one which is much larger. I haven't mailed the return yet, as I don't want to deal with having to amend it. Does anyone have any ideas?
   (I used to post on ML a long time ago).

[ellipses84]

I’m sorry for your loss.
Is there any chance she had an online account you could figure out how to access? The year end statement may be there. Have you dealt with a lawyer who could send a letter and a copy of the death certificate to the account manager requesting the info? If you are just calling they may think it is fraud and not want to give you info, but usually there is a process for proving you have a right to the info.

[zizibet]

Thanks, ellipses84, I appreciate your sympathy. She didn't use online stuff, as she preferred paper. The planner is actually here- I live in my hometown, so I hand delivered them a death certificate so they could wind up the accounts. The year-end statement they sent out, which I do have, has the amounts etc. of the dividends, it just doesn't say what happened to them. Maybe I should just file the return as is and take my chances, maybe ask for back bank statements.
Towards the end of her life, she turned into a paper hoarder, and there are boxes and boxes of random receipts, bank statements, all kinds of this just jumbled together with no system, and as it would cost a fortune to ship all of it to me. she's just been trying to find things.

[tacokick]

I’m sorry for your loss.

Even if it doesn’t go through probate most states require some sort of “small estate” form—did you do that? Normally that will give you the paper work you need for the bank and everything else.

Contact the office that handles estates and tell them what is going on. They will issue you a letter giving legal status to your claim to executor. That will most likely allow the paperwork to be sent directly to you vs your mom’s house as well.

The paper giving you power as executor and her death certificate should be more than enough for the bank. I did my mom’s estate last year without a lawyer or accountant and it was pretty easy if time consuming.