What happens on the death of an investor

[Guest]

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[KyRoamer]

I asked a friend in his late 60's to join Kiva. He looked and said that many of the loans he was interested (USA loans, Israeli loans) often had maturities of well over 30 months. He did not want to saddle his disinterested family with reclaiming a $2,500 portfolio $100 per month for 2 years. Does Kiva offer a buy-back on death? Are there other options -- can an executor sell a Kiva portfolio?

[Diane R]

There's no Kiva buy-back provision, and while a portfolio can't be sold (that I know of), it can be given to someone to administer and do with as they please. My father included a clause in his will asking that his Kiva account be transferred to me for continuing, for instance.  I *could*, if I wanted to, withdraw his funds, but his desire would have been to continue lending, so that's what I'm doing with it. If your friend wanted lending in his account to continue upon his death, he might choose to leave it to you as an active Kiva lender, perhaps, with instructions on what to do with the repaid funds if he'd want something other than relending to happen.

There is an option under My Portfolio - My Account - Auto Lending where a lender can set criteria for auto-lending and contributing to Kiva.  Some lenders have used this feature to ensure that their Kiva funds are automatically re-lent or converted into contributions to Kiva's operating expenses; I think this could continue to work for an account whose owner was deceased.  While this will not return repaid funds to family members, it would allow the funds to be used in a positive way, rather than just sitting idly.

So I think the short answer is that the options you'd most like are not available; the available options involve either someone intervening over time with the account to withdraw the repaid funds or having the funds continue to be lent out and contributed until they are depleted.

--Diane.

[KyRoamer]

Great post Diane.

Thanks for replying.