Accounts of deceased

I'm not aware of a comprehensive way to do that. My suggestions:

1. Simply contact banks and stock brokers and ask if he had an account there. She should include a copy of her Letters Testementary, if any.
2. Look through his bank statements for his primary account for the last few years, to see if she can identify any deposits into other accounts.
3. Check his credit report for who made inquiries as to his credit. Good luck.

Stu

Only the IRS has that information and I don't think they will do a reverse search for her, but she should be able to get the same information from their tax return. Any account that paid interest or dividends had to issue a

1099-INT or 1099-DIV form. Whoever prepared their last tax return should have those 1099 forms, plus the information from those forms should have been entered on their tax return itself. If there are IRA accounts there may not be any 1099 forms but the tax returns might also indicate if an IRA exists. Mailed statements should also lead to unknown accounts.

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-Ernie-

"Sam" wrote

If they filed jointly, or if not, does she have access to his returns, she can gather that information from the tax returns for any accounts that earned income and that he was primary on. Otherwise, she'll need a Power of Attorney to get a transcript of his account from the IRS which should list the income bearing accounts. Any accounts that did not earn income won't be listed, nor would any accounts in which he was part owner (listed secondary on).

-- Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens, Georgia

Your question is appropriate for this newsgroup. You can contact IRS to verify the existence of any accounts that reported taxable interest or dividend income. About two weeks ago, IRS made 2006 information returns, i.e., Forms W-2, 1099, etc., available on its Information Returns Masterfile. Strict federal privacy laws govern IRS' authority to disclose taxpayer information. Due to the circumstances involved, I recommend the surviving spouse contact IRS in person at the nearest walk-in office. She will need to bring a copy of the death certificate (does not need to be certified) and his will. And of course she will need his social security number. Ask the staff at the IRS walk-in office to look up the deceased husband's income information on the IRPTR database. They should be able to print out a

2006 IRPTR transcript and provide it. Locations and addresses of IRS walk-in offices (also called Taxpayer Assistance Centers) are available at the link below. Beneath the walk-in url, I'm pasting a link to IRS Publication 559, which addresses decedent tax issues. Good luck to you.

Condor

While not perfect, file form 4506 to request and pay for a complete copy the past two years income tax returns, showing schedule B interest and dividend payers. And pay attention to all notices and statements from financial institutions.