Hi guys,

Both of my parents had prior marriages. My mother had no children from hers but my father had two. Many years ago (early-mid 90's) my parents put around 5k in retirement funds for both of them. They didn't tell them right away.

Sometime since the funds were created my half brother "borrowed" around 10k from my parents to pay of high interest CC debt and pay them back at a more reasonable rate. I don't know the details but he then proceeded shortly after to break all contact. He has refused to even acknowledge the debt. My parents have since split up. Step brother talks to neither of them still.

I don't talk to my father much anymore but I'd imagine he has long since forgotten about the fund. My mother hasn't but will not ever tell him about the funds existence and has settled on letting the money ride out all eternity where it is.

Is there any (legal) play here to get the money back? I'm not 100 percent certain I recall correctly but I'm pretty sure the fund is with Janus. We also have no idea how much it is now worth but I imagine a fair amount given the time it was started.

Google wasn't much of a help on this one. I'll probably end up contacting Janus but wanted to better understand the options (if any) first.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

People get statements and 1099-D at tax time so someone knows about these funds. Your post is confusing to me though so I am not sure what to answer.

Your parents need to sue your half-brother for repayment of the loan. If they are successful, they can pursue collections of the money in various ways, depending on their jurisdiction. They have no special claim to a retirement account that is in his name.

I'm pretty sure it can be set up to not do this. I had a small trust account that recently matured. Prior to that date I had no knowledge of it. There were very few statements sent (if any) and they didn't start coming to me until I took over the account by verifying my identity.

I guess I was assuming something similar was the case.

cap217 is correct -- investment income is taxable income so someone has to be getting the US version of the T5.

Beyond that to know if your mom can go get the finds back we'd need to know more about how the account was set up -- basically whose name the account is in and who has signing authority for the account.

Even if you can actually take the funds it is likely still illegal to do so.

Trusts are a completely different matter. Without knowing the details of how the trust was set up it is impossible to say anything

Trust are set up with a supervisor or "trustee" and its thats persons job to keep up with the details of the trust. They would have complete control and would pay the taxes or have the trust set up to pay itself (someone has to do it though) and have a CPA come in.

Investments are in someones name as a custodian and a minor or joint account holder. Minors dont worry about anything (529 plans or UTMAs) but custodians need to keep up with taxes and witholding and disburstments.

There is a chance people moved and lost touch with the company but Janus knows this and if there is enough $ in the account to pay the fees then they keep it moving until somoene tracks the account down or they get ahold of the client.

You must be on the account to even question it so you probably dont have access.

Cool, thanks guys.

I didn't get a whole lot of details on the situation but I do recall my mother saying she no longer gets paperwork on the account. I can't imagine my father does so maybe they did track him down.

I also can't imagine the account is in anything other than his name.

Oh well, I guess it's just going to sit if he doesn't know about it because she doesn't seem inclined to go after it.

whos account is it?

It is the step-brother's retirement account.

^ That is my understanding of it.

I'm going to call my mother tomorrow to confirm. I could be off base and it may actually be some sort of a trust account. When we talked about it she seemed under the impression that he would have no reason to know about it if she didn't tell him. However it sounds like that isn't possible for any account if it's in his name (unless of course Janus couldn't track him down).