What to do when a Mid Atlantic Trust account holder dies

Probably, but it is on a clock. Mid Atlantic Trust runs a stale-check outreach process: it searches for a current address and writes asking for a completed Request for Distribution form directing a stop-payment and reissue, and it allows 90 days for that process. A $35 fee is taken out of the check proceeds to cover the stop-payment on the original check and the issuance of the new one. If the form never comes back, MATC rolls the still-stale check into an IRA on its own platform where the funds are eligible for that; where they are not eligible, the check stays in the stale-check process until the money is escheated to the state the check was mailed to — and at that point the heirs claim it from that state's unclaimed property office rather than from Mid Atlantic Trust. Do not deposit a check payable to a decedent. Call MATC Cashiering at (800) 693-7800 or email requests@macg.com, complete the Request for Distribution form with the CLAIMANT's current information, and enclose the death certificate and (if the estate is entitled to the funds) certified Letters. Reissued checks take 2-3 business days to process and 3-5 business days to arrive.

It is money the decedent never claimed. Mid Atlantic Trust is appointed by the Department of Labor as a Qualified Termination Administrator, which lets it wind up retirement plans whose employer went out of business or stopped supporting the plan. When a plan is terminated or deemed abandoned, MATC notifies every participant, gives them 30 days to withdraw or roll over their funds, and — for anyone who does not respond — opens an Auto Rollover IRA in that person's name and holds the balance "until you claim them." This preserves the tax-deferred status and avoids an early-withdrawal penalty. Because the account is opened BY the plan rather than by the account holder, the decedent often never named a beneficiary and may never have known it existed. MATC also runs periodic searches for lost participants and lost BENEFICIARIES, which is why its mail sometimes reaches a family years after the death. Call MATC IRA Services at (888) 461-2224 or email autorollover@macg.com with the name of the plan, the decedent's full name, and the last four digits of their Social Security number, and ask both whether an IRA exists and whether any beneficiary is on file.

Yes to the designation, with a caveat about the paperwork. No retirement account — a 401(k), a 403(b), or an IRA — can ever be RETITLED into a revocable living trust; a trust can only be the beneficiary. For an employer plan, that designation is filed with the plan's recordkeeper or TPA, not with Mid Atlantic Trust, and the plan document may require a spouse to consent in writing first. For an IRA held at MATC, request the beneficiary designation form from IRA Services at (888) 461-2224 or autorollover@macg.com. Either way the form needs the trust's exact legal name, the date it was established, its EIN, and the trustee. The MATC-specific catch is at claim time: its USA PATRIOT Act customer identification notice states that a trust or other legal entity may be required to produce its principal place of business, EIN, and trust agreement, and that the account "may be restricted or closed if we cannot obtain and verify this information." A trustee should therefore have the complete trust document and the EIN in hand before filing, not after. Note also that a trust failing the IRS look-through requirements is treated as a non-person beneficiary, which generally shortens the payout period. Mid Atlantic Trust does not give legal or tax advice. Consult a licensed attorney for legal questions about naming a trust as beneficiary of a retirement account.