Introduction

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21. I've never understood having many different investment accounts

Can you explain why you do? I understand that you inherited some account, but is there a specific reason to have multiple ones?

My parents had a number of different ones - partly because they did not want the people in their little town to know their net worth and the local broker was a gossipy sort. But it cased a lot of problems in the long run - none of their brokers knew that they had other accounts so their advice was based solely on what was in the account they handled. In the end, their aggrgate accounts were not well distributed which has caused problems since they left.

They also didn't tell their estate attorney their true net worth so the planning he did for taxes and distribution of their combined estate was not very good.

The only people who had a clue of their net worth was their accounting firm and of course they could not share with anyone.

Oh - and boy is your last comment correct - it has been a nightmare for our family to sort out the holdings and accounts. Multiple investment accounts with multiple firms with 50 or more holdings in EACH! All of wich has to be divided up in various amounts to nine different heirs. That does not even count the many real estate properties, family corporations, and personal property. My older sister, the executor, has been brilliant at it but after over seven years of dealing with this stuff, she is ready to be done (Dad was incompetent before his death in 2013, Mom passed in 2018). Now we're just waiting for a letter from the IRS so everything can be finalized.