Fidelity Wants a Death Certificate From Your Ex's Family? Here's Why
A widow-like bureaucratic nightmare: Fidelity demanding a death certificate from someone with no obvious connection to the deceased.
You divorced the guy. His sister died. Now Fidelity is asking *you* for her death certificate. Sound absurd? It's not — and if you have any kind of inherited or jointly linked financial account, this situation could land in your lap too.
Brokerage firms like Fidelity don't just take your word for it when someone on an account dies. They need paperwork. Death certificates are the gold standard, and institutions will chase down anyone even loosely connected to an account to get one. That includes ex-spouses, estranged relatives, and people who thought they were completely out of the financial picture.
Read more Original Medicare's Missing Cap Can Crush You During Cancer Treatment →
The kicker? Death certificates cost money — anywhere from $10 to $25 per certified copy depending on the state, sometimes more. As the person quoted in the original piece deadpanned, shelling out for one feels like buying a lottery ticket. You might get something out of it. You might just be out cash with nothing to show.
This is a reminder to audit every account you're connected to — even tangentially. Beneficiary designations, joint account holdovers, and transfer-on-death setups can create invisible threads tying you to people and estates you thought were long gone from your financial life. One outdated form filed years ago can trigger headaches like this one.
If you're staring down a similar request, don't ignore it. Dragging your feet on estate paperwork can freeze assets and create legal exposure. Get the certificate, submit it, and then do a full sweep of your own accounts to make sure no one will be chasing your ex's relatives someday. Continue reading at MarketWatch.com
