What to do when a PIMCO account holder dies

No. PIMCO's Transfer on Death Registration Form limits TOD registration to accounts held by natural persons -- a sole owner, or joint owners with right of survivorship (JTWROS) or as tenants by the entirety. TOD registration is expressly NOT available for trusts, corporations, associations, tenants in common, UGMA/UTMA custodial accounts, or community property registrations. So a trust registration and a TOD registration are alternatives, not a pair. The reverse works, though: a trust CAN be the named TOD BENEFICIARY on your individual account, and SS&C (PIMCO's transfer agent) will ask for the trust documents at the time of death. If you convert an existing PIMCO account to TOD registration, the form needs a Medallion Signature Guarantee or Signature Validation Program stamp; changing beneficiaries on an account that is already TOD-registered does not.

It depends on which PIMCO product you own and whether you bought it direct or through a brokerage. If you hold PIMCO mutual funds or interval funds DIRECTLY, your shares are on the books of PIMCO's transfer agent, SS&C Global Investor & Distribution Solutions, Inc., in Kansas City, MO -- that is who processes the death claim, and every form goes to PIMCO Funds, P.O. Box 219294, Kansas City, MO 64121 (Class A/C/R) or P.O. Box 219024, Kansas City, MO 64121-9024 (Institutional). Start with a call to 800-426-0107 (retail) or 800-927-4648 (institutional). PIMCO closed-end funds use a different transfer agent, Equiniti Trust Company, LLC, reachable at 844-337-4626. PIMCO ETFs use State Street Bank & Trust Company as transfer agent and are held in a brokerage account, so an ETF position is claimed through the brokerage (888-400-4383 for ETF questions). If the funds sit inside a brokerage account, the brokerage -- not PIMCO -- runs the estate process.

Per the guidelines attached to PIMCO's Transfer on Death Registration Form, the surviving owner of a JTWROS or tenancy-by-entirety account sends clear written instruction to PIMCO Funds, P.O. Box 219294, Kansas City, MO 64121 (overnight: 801 Pennsylvania Avenue, Ste 219294, Kansas City, MO 64105-1307), together with evidence of the co-owner's death (a certified death certificate) and, where the state requires them, inheritance tax waivers and/or an affidavit of domicile for the deceased co-owner. If share certificates were issued, the surviving owner must endorse them with a Medallion Signature Guarantee or Signature Validation Program stamp. On cost basis, PIMCO splits JTWROS shares equally unless you state each party's ownership percentage: the decedent's portion gets date-of-death fair market value and the rest keeps its existing basis.

The named beneficiary calls PIMCO shareholder services (800-426-0107 for retail accounts), submits a certified death certificate, and completes the Inherited IRA/Roth IRA Set-up Form at pimco.com/us/en/resources/forms-and-applications. That one form does double duty: it opens the inherited IRA or Roth IRA AND takes a distribution from it. It asks for the deceased shareholder's account number, the original owner's date of birth and date of death, and every previous owner if you are inheriting from a beneficiary rather than the original owner. Per the form's signature section, a Medallion Signature Guarantee is required on ANY initial death distribution to a beneficiary -- not just on distributions mailed to a new address or sent to a bank that is not already on the account. If this is a new account you must also submit a PIMCO IRA or Roth IRA account application. For most non-spouse beneficiaries the SECURE Act requires the inherited IRA to be emptied within 10 years; eligible designated beneficiaries (surviving spouses, minor children, disabled or chronically ill individuals, and those not more than 10 years younger than the decedent) may take life-expectancy RMDs instead, and a surviving spouse may treat the IRA as their own. With no beneficiary designated, the IRA goes to the estate and through probate.