What to do when a Interactive Brokers account holder dies

No. The online registration is only the first half. After you enter beneficiaries under User menu > Settings > Account Configuration > Account Inheritance, IBKR generates a pre-populated Transfer on Death Agreement that you must print, sign, and have NOTARIZED before returning it. The TOD is not complete until IBKR receives and approves that signed agreement — at which point your account title is amended to show the designation (for example "Jane Doe, TOD") and your statements reflect it. The same trap applies to changes: you must send a NEW signed agreement every time you modify or remove a TOD beneficiary. And a revocation only counts if IBKR received and approved it before you died — a revocation still sitting unapproved at your death does not defeat the registered beneficiary.

IBKR limits TOD registration to US-based Individual accounts, Joint accounts registered as Tenants with Rights of Survivorship or Tenants by Entirety, and individual IRA account users. A Tenants in Common joint account is NOT eligible — when one tenant in common dies, that share has to go through probate. Corporate accounts, UGMA/UTMA custodial accounts, and Trust accounts are also outside the TOD path; on a trust account, beneficiaries are registered through the Account Inheritance page's IRA-and-Trust flow and the assets ultimately pass under the trust's own terms. IBKR also cautions that some US states do not allow beneficiary registration or impose restrictions, and it puts the burden of figuring that out on you.

Everything is remote and document-driven. Email the Estate Processing team — estateprocessing@interactivebrokers.com for US and European accounts, estateprocessingca@ for Canadian accounts, estateprocessingapac@ for Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore accounts — with the account number and "Estate Processing" in the subject. IBKR opens estate processing on receipt of a certified death certificate and then issues account-specific instructions to verified heirs, because the process varies by account type and jurisdiction. A TOD beneficiary submits the certified death certificate, a copy of their driver's license or passport, the Non-Probated Estate Action Form, and the notarized Transfer On Death - Beneficiary Distribution Form by email to help@interactivebrokers.com, by fax to (312) 984-1017, or by mail to Interactive Brokers LLC, Estate Processing, P.O. Box A3770, Chicago, IL 60690-3770. One thing catches most people: IBKR moves the assets into the beneficiary's OWN Interactive Brokers account, so if you are not already a client you have to open an IBKR account as part of the claim. If there was no TOD registration and no surviving joint owner, the executor must produce Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the probate court.