Marcella
Burgess Giles
Attorney at Law
(703) 623-8360 (CELL)
jbgiles@msn.com
TO: ITMA
FROM: Association Liason to OST
DATE:
RE:
Attendees: Donna Erwin,
Marcella Giles, Angela Luhan, John Driskoll
I prepared 5 questions to
review with the OST. (See attached) Ms. Irwin and Mr. Driskoll were prepared to give a briefing on the
financial system now in place.
Ms. Erwin explained the
module out of the TAAMS 2.0 now in place that provides the following
functions: (1) Loads and converts data,
(2) shows an encumbrance (3) houses a lockbox, (4) validates data, (5) shows
interest monthly and the overnight rate. TFAS is located in
When OST reviewed the systems
they found that the systems have not been reconciled to titles. The systems are IRMS, REMS, MADS, and
PCLease. A “trust data
validation/correction” project piloted at Concho and Anadarko agencies is in
place. OST expects TSRs to be available
on a more timely basis. Payments will be
made from the current title data and a more comprehensive beneficiary statement
of perfomance will be generated. A data quality and intergrity (DQ&I)
process to get certified title involves CNI (Chickasaw entity), BIA, and TFAS.
PROBATES
A new system called Protrac
is being installed. There will be a
tracking of the time in probate from the beginning to the actual placement of
money in a new account. There are
currently approximately 23,000 probates backlogged and an estimated 5% of the
probates generate two or more in addition.
A copy of the draft Instructor guide for training on the American
Indian Probate Reform Act of 2004, P.L. 108-374 was given to ITMA. The seven lessons may be summarized as:
- Learning the purpose of the course; use and
purpose of student materials; location of the training facility.
- Learning the major elements of the American
Indian Probate Reform Act’s history.
- Learning the major provisions of the American
Indian Probate Reform Act (AIPRA)
and
describing the important terms, and the existing processes and procedures that
the Act will impact.
- Learning the probate provisions of AIPRA and
being able to eplain provisions reegarding trust or restricted property
distribution and being able to provide basic estate planning information
to trust or restricted landowners and their eligible heirs.
- Learning to describe the non-probate provisions
of AIPRA and provide basic information on lalnd consolidation, land
management and land sale/transfer options available to individual Indians
and Tribal Governments under the provisions of the new law.
- Learning the impacts of AIPRA on individual
owners, tribes, and BIA,OHA, and OST staff.
- Learning to ask others to clarify or expand on a
point of interest and provide feedback on the content and conduct of the
course and evaluate professional growth.
A schedule has been developed
under which to conduct the training sessions.
Probate is located within the Office of Hearings and Appeals with BIA
providing title and lease distribution documentation and OST providing
financial documentation and estate distribution.
LIAISON QUESTIONS
- A letter was disseminated on
Answer: OST and BIA reviewed the situation with will
writing assistance. BIA personnel
assisting with will writing were not lawyers and were not trained. If the agency did asist in writing a will there were no inventories of
wills. Often there would be a probate
conducted only to find near the end a will had been written and considerable
time invested to try to find it and a new probate was started over. It is being suggested that associations or legal services be surveyed to consider
their availability to provide assistance.
*The web site trust.fix still
states that a will must be filed with the agency to be valid as of
- The two top topics in all Listening Conferences held
by ITMA were appraisals and probate issues. What is OST’s responsibility to
appraisals and probate in relation to funds management?
Answer: The Special Trustee has a contract with a
contractor and plans to separate the appraisals from OST. OST is looking to ProTract as a system to
help keep information and status of probates.
- Is there a record of feedback to allottees who
presented questions at the Listening Conferences?
Answer: Yes.
There has been contact with the people whose name and issue was taken at
the Conference.
- Is there a plan to impose fees on accountholders
for OST to manage their account?
Are penalty fees collected?
Is interest on interest collected?
Answer: There is no plan to impose fees on
accountholders. There was a discussion
at some point last year but there has been no further discussion.
- What is the status of the 8 major initatives?
Answer: The Fiduciary Trust Model (FTM) has been
approved and is being implemented.
A call center has been
installed and is working to receive beneficiary’s calls and is responding to
their concerns. The initial testing phase
began
Regional Fiduciary Trust
Administrators and Fiduciary Trust Officers have been hired and put in place.
Future questions:
- How can a financial account be reconciled if
source documents are missing?
- How does the OST calculate interest due on past
interest and penalties?
- If probate has not been doen, or is imcomplete or
in error, how do you correct it?
- If land is missing and producing, how do you
correct the account?
- If the IIM was not properly closed by the
ancestor, what rights do heirs or descendants have to make their claim?
- Is “clean up” complete when the right owners are
matched with the right revenue and all leases and easements are identified
and recorded and corrected?