Author: cms_admin

You don’t need me to tell your retirement savings are currently, well, not experiencing optimum conditions. Here’s an odd story, one which certainly isn’t meant to reflect or otherwise impugn the many financial entities that are doing their jobs ethically and competently. But there are exceptions. This is one of them. 

My father, John Soyka, a former Electric Boat employee, died in October, 2004. On August 2024, twenty years after the fact, I was contacted by phone and subsequently a letter informing me that I had a “large” benefit payout due me as my father’s sole survivor. I was suspicious at first this was a scam, but, it checked out these were legitimate representations. Emphasis on “representations.” 

Some time, effort, and expense went into providing the necessary documentation to claim the “large” benefit promised. I also prepaid taxes on the supposed benefit due to the estate I had to create (as I was not a named beneficiary, unlike all my father’s other accounts, which should have been a red flag). I was told verbally a check was on its way. Shortly thereafter, I received a letter, that “oopsie daisy,” there in fact was no benefit.It took a while to get an explanation of how this could happen, and even then it’s not entirely clear other than that an error occurred. And, golly gee, we’re awfully sorry. I would tend to think that if someone is contacting a person after 20 years about a possible six figure death benefit that they might be sure of this before they do so.

Back in third grade I was taught to “always check your math.” Evidently this lesson hasn’t been learned by some people who handle survivor benefits. While I did file an executive complain, three months later I haven’t heard a peep. Not even another “golly, gee, we really are sorry for the aggravation and inconvenience we caused.” So, just saying that, sure, stuff happens. But it might not hurt to make inquiries to ensure similar kind of stuff isn’t happening with your investments.

I