What to do when a M1 account holder dies

Completed by the IRA beneficiary. Completed online.¹

Completed by the IRA beneficiary. Completed online.¹

With a transfer-on-death beneficiary named, the death certificate alone transfers the account into the beneficiary's name, with no court letters. M1 verifies the designation and provides next steps.¹

On a joint brokerage account, ownership passes to the surviving owner with no additional steps, though M1 may ask to refresh documentation. The account statement shows whether an account is cleared by Apex or self-cleared by M1 Finance LLC.¹

On an Apex-cleared joint account, Apex may freeze the account indefinitely if it cannot determine the proper distribution.²

With no transfer-on-death beneficiary and no surviving joint owner, the estate representative must supply the court-issued appointment documents.¹

An IRA beneficiary opens an M1 Inherited IRA using the Beneficiary Traditional IRA form or Beneficiary Roth IRA form. M1 follows up on an Inherited IRA application by email within 2-3 business days.¹

An outstanding margin loan must be repaid on receipt of the death certificate. Because margin balances cannot be transferred, M1 automatically sells the most overweight Slices in the account to cover it.¹

The crypto account is offered by Bakkt, in omnibus custodial wallets with no per-client private keys. It has no transfer-on-death or beneficiary designation, so the estate representative claims it, and the coins cannot be moved to an outside wallet through the M1 account.¹

Custodial accounts carry no beneficiary designation. M1 provides account details only to the custodian, so a successor custodian recognized under the governing state UTMA statute is the person M1 will deal with.¹

M1 Trust accounts carry no beneficiary designation.¹

Client Success retrieves the deceased person's tax documents for the account on request.¹

Section 16 ("Event of Death") runs on written notice. M1 is not responsible for action taken on open orders before it has received notice of death and issued its own written acknowledgement, and the estate is liable for any net debit balance from transactions initiated before written notice arrived.³

Section 16 lets M1 cancel all open orders and, at its discretion, close out any or all of the account without awaiting the appointment of a personal representative and without demand upon or notice to that representative.³

Section 29 separately authorizes M1 to sell assets, buy in short positions, and cancel open orders on the account holder's death.³

Section 16 lets M1 require inheritance and estate tax waivers, retain a portion of the account, or restrict transactions as it deems advisable to protect itself against tax, liability, penalty, or loss.³