How Do I Write a Letter of Instruction to Northwestern Mutual Investment Services?

Send it to Northwestern Mutual Investment Services's estate/claims department: Account paperwork and death certificates: Northwestern Mutual, P.O. Box 2958, Milwaukee, WI 53201. Physical stock and bond certificates: Pershing LLC, Attn: Security Receive Dept, One Pershing Plaza, Jersey City, NJ 07399. Book-entry re-registration: Attn: Legal Transfers, 720 E Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53202.. You can reach the department at 1-866-950-4644.

Northwestern Mutual Investment Services lists these among its required documents: Certified copy of the death certificate; Government-issued photo ID for the beneficiary, successor trustee, or personal representative; The account number, or the NetXInvestor login the deceased used at nmis.netxinvestor.com; Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration — required for any account with NO TOD registration, no named beneficiary, and no surviving joint owner. The prepared letter includes an enclosure checklist drawn from Northwestern Mutual Investment Services's recorded requirements.

Northwestern Mutual does not publish a settlement timeline for investment accounts. A TOD or named-beneficiary account moves fastest because no court paperwork is needed; an account with no designation waits on Letters Testamentary. Physical certificates add the longest delay, since they must be re-registered at Pershing in Jersey City before anything can be sold.

Northwestern Mutual Investment Services provides its own letter-of-instruction/claim form. We prepare a transmittal cover letter and an enclosure checklist to accompany that form.

It depends on the capacity you are acting in. An executor or administrator encloses Letters Testamentary (when there is a will) or Letters of Administration (when there is not); a successor trustee encloses a certificate of trust; a successor under a small estate encloses that state’s small estate affidavit. The prepared letter lists the proof-of-authority document for your role alongside the institution’s required documents.

A letter of instruction is the written request an institution asks for when settling a deceased customer’s account. It identifies the decedent and the account, states the capacity you are acting in, and tells the institution what to do with the account.