Legal advice - 403(b) plan

The small town atty we used, said it wasn't necessary. We've liquated two other retirement accounts and had no issue.

Depending on the balance.. you may can have a small estates affidavit signed to bypass estate. Louisiana estate is kinda weird but if they won’t accept that then you’ll have to proceed with probate.

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My father who passed away last year had a small 403(b) plan with Lincoln Financial Group and only listed my mother as the beneficiary. We have an order from the court of possession of said assets, but LFG is going by the plan documents which states the balance is to go to his estate.

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LFG is 10,000 percent correct here.

First, you said your mother was the beneficiary. Did your mother predecease your father? If not, then the money should go your mother, end of story.

If your mother predeceased your father, and there was no contingent beneficiary stated, then there is a "default beneficiary" which is listed in the plan documents. In almost all cases, that is the estate.

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We did not create an estate for my father's assets. My sister was listed as executor in his will.

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One does not "create" an estate. An estate is created upon death, if there are any assets that need to pass through probate. Perhaps you have not filed documents recognizing that estate with the government.

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We are having a hard time opening an estate account for my father since he has passed away.

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An estate isn't created until passing, so your father could not have done anything while still alive. Your sister, the executor, needs to go get an EIN from the IRS (this is free and online) then take that along with the will establishing her as executor, then go to LFG with that.

LFG *may* allow the executrix (your sister) to take a distribution right out and distribute it directly to the estate beneficiary. It may be easier if the amount is small to just cash it out.

Note... the estate will need to file a "first and final" income tax return if you do this.

To everyone else... please make sure your beneficiary designations on retirement plans are up to date.

To piggyback...if you have an I bond or any other bond through TreasuryDirect, make sure you set that up correctly too. My dumbass apparently set up two registrations for my dad, one POD. Well....the bond is in the other. So I'm jumping through a ton of hoops plus dealing with an incompetent BOA employee trying to get a measly $10k plus interest paid out to my mom who has cancer and cannot manage her affairs.

Speaking of...if anyone knows somewhere I can get a signature guarantee, or knows someone at BOA with a IQ over 90 to look into what I've already submitted which includes the TD form, an Affidavit of Small Estate, death certificate, and a filed POA, that would be great.

About 25K, in Louisiana.

Couple of questions.
-Is mom still alive?
-was the account PoD (Pay on Death)?

If yes to the above, there should be no need for an estate (may not even need it for the 2nd item). The 403b should simply rollover to mom as his spouse.
If she has already passed, the LFG is correct. In this case you’ll need to go through the estate. This also has some different RMD requirements vs inheriting an IRA directly (5 year vs 10 year withdrawal).

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The small town atty we used, said it wasn't necessary. We've liquated two other retirement accounts and had no issue.

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To be fair, in my experience many attorneys are plain lazy/dumb with respect to financial institution rules regarding estate processing.

I’ve seen many, many attorneys try to tell clients they don’t need to open a succession to access jointly owned accounts in Louisiana, which is patently false. The last estate document I received was from an attorney who tried to use a small estate affidavit for accounts listed over $200k in LA, which is well above the limit on those. That’s simply negligent.