How have P2P investors handled their P2P accounts in their estate plans?  We are currently updating ours and would appreciate ideas!

In the simplest scenario, suppose a joint account at LC or Prosper, but only one spouse is interested in peer-to-peer investing, and the other is perhaps not really computer savvy at all.  When the P2P investor spouse (that's me, of course) passes away, the remaining spouse inherits the account, and assuming she doesn't really want to be a P2P investor, she has a few issues:
     Canceling auto invest, API or 3rd party investments in new loans
     Transferring cash elsewhere as it accumulates from interest and payoffs.
     Dealing with P2P taxes.
Unless she can sell notes via folio (LC only), there will be a time lag of 3 to 5 years when the account can't be closed. 
(If the account was an IRA, then the tax problem is solved but $ transfers are taxable (or to other IRAs).

Now consider a tougher scenario - unmarried person as the P2P investor, with, say 5 beneficiaries.  First, you have the same issues as with a spouse - does each beneficiary really want to be a P2P investor?  Second, do Prosper/LC have a process for splitting a P2P account? 

For an after tax account, Prosper does not even have a way to name a beneficiary, so it's probably best to use a trust account there.  Your general estate plan may call for distribution of all trust/estate assets to the beneficiaries asap, but is that even possible, or does the trust take 3-5 years to wind down (as successor trustee fees accumulate)?

For IRA accounts, you can name multiple beneficiaries at the IRA custodian, but what happens when the custodian tells LC/Prosper to split the account five ways?

Maybe the best estate plan is to start winding down my P2P accounts 3-5 years before I die?  Thanks in advance some help on this as you can see I pretty confused!

Neal
     
   

Re. American Home Pres., Wikipedia says:

AHP uses the current value of the home as the basis for determining the modified payments, principal discounts and incentive payments offered to borrowers. As a result of this formulaic approach, borrowers are not required to furnish significant documents in order to obtain mortgage modifications.

So there's your risk factor.  Lost you union job?  Now flipping burgers?  No problem!

A search through Peter's old blog posts wil turn up more than one extolling the virtue of repeat borrowers.

What do people think about the new Beta View?

I've been trying to find a way to get to saved filters from the beta view. As far as I can tell, it can't be done. You can click on "Browse Loans" and then "Advanced / Saved Filters but no saved filters are shown there.  My conspiracy detector says maybe this Prosper's way of getting rid of saved filters and those annoying retail investors that like them.

Another dumb thing:  the Account Overview screen has a little bar chart of your notes by grade, but if you have an IRA account, instead of the bar chart you get a bright orange box that says "Add some cash to start investing".  Never mind that you have mucho uninvested cash and hundreds of notes in your account already, the coder apparently thinks if you don't have a linked bank account you have no notes to chart.  Dude, just search for notes and if none are found and cash is $0, then display the orange box!

Here's a listing for an Auto Loan from a repeat borrower.  Borrower has five previous loans for a total of $25,000; no payments (late or on time) on any of them, and now wants $20,000 for a car.  No, it's not a data mistake - all five previous loans are dated July, 2015!
https://www.prosper.com/invest/listing.aspx?listingID=3413664

Let's walk this through.  Suppose we have, for 2014, $5,000 in P2P losses.  No other capital gains or losses.  And 100 shares of a stock worth $100/share; tax basis $80 per share.  We plan to sell this stock in 2015, when it may be worth, say $120/share.

Scenario 1:  Don't sell and rebuy the stock.  We have a 2014 write-off of $3,000 in losses against our income, plus a $2,000 capital loss carry over.  In 2015, we sell our stock and have a $4,000 gain, but we can use the $2,000 loss carry over to reduce that to $2,000. 

Scenario 2.  In late 2014, we sell and then re-buy the stock.  We have a 2,000 gain, and we still have $5,000 in P2P losses.  We still deduct the same $3,000 from our income, and our 2014 tax is the same as in scenario 1.  In 2015, we sell the stock and have a $2,000 gain, but no loss carry over, so we have to pay tax on the $2,000 gain.

In other words, there's no difference.

Shhhh.  Since you can't sell Past Due notes on folio, but you sell Current notes, isn't this an advantage?