A Cook County woman is suing two brokerage firms, alleging failure to release funds from her late parents’ retirement account.
Noel Schumann, independent executor of the estate of her mother, Laurie J. Kuzel, filed a lawsuit Aug. 21 in Cook County Circuit Court against Fidelity Brokerage Services and Banyan Partners.
According to the complaint, Kuzel, who died Dec.8 , 2014, is the rightful beneficiary of a retirement account created by her late husband in 2002. The IRA’s primary beneficiary was designated as a trust Kuzel’s husband had established in 1973, the suit says, with Kuzel named as secondary beneficiary. The suit says the defendants are refusing to release the funds until the first and last pages of the 1973 trust document are produced.
Schumann seeks a declaratory judgment naming her as the rightful beneficiary of the IRA’s funds, as well as release of the funds and all accrued interest. She is represented by attorney Ben Goldwater of Goldwater & Associates in Chicago.
Cook County Circuit Court case number 2015-CH12619.