But she also has an irrevocable burial fund thru a bank since 1988 (doesn't specify a funeral home). She apparently did not understand how this 'investment' works.
Can this be converted to another type CD?
Can she cash it in?
If she passes away and doesn't use all the account can the remainder go to her estate?
If the bank has change names or merged with another bank, in the last 30 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s going to have to go to research department to get a bead on just what’s what.
This is really old agreement and may have a pretty high interest rate paid once the investment became fully funded and pays a dividend. I bet once fully funded, the dividend (with hopefully interest rate pegged to 1988) has been required to be reinvested into the fund. Its 30 years old, it’s fully funded. So you may NOT want to try to touch it as interest rates today are pitiful, like 2%-3%.
How to know if this could be the case is does your mom get a 1099 Interest form? If so, you might want to just leave it be and when she dies, you as Executor has it move into the “Estate of” bank account if it’s set up to be payable to the Estate or to you if she has her accounts POD to you. It’s kinda old, I bet like other investments from 1960’s-1980’s, it’s set up to be paid to “Estate Of” which means you’re gonna have to deal with probate in some way.
My mom had a old old term life insurance policy that once fully funded paid her a dividend. Face value like $1500, so ok for Medicaid as for term it’s the face value that counts. Policy required dividend to be placed / reinvested into policy; she could not get a check for the annual dividend paid. Terms were irrevocable. However, the Dividend Interest reported to IRS. It was a sticky for Medicaid as interest technically income, & would take her over the Medicaid monthly income limit for month paid. This was solved by amortization of the dividend by 12 months. I had to get a CPA to do a letter for the initial application.
I mention this cause if your mom at 95 should outlive her $ and your ability to caregive and eventually need to apply for Medicaid, interest or dividends on irrevocable stuff can be amortized to have their income be under Medicaid income limits. The $ in the policy would be an inaccessible asset for Medicaid as she can’t get it as it’s irrevocable as only pays after death. So should not count in her 2k asset limit.