My Responsibility

[robsmom]

I agree with everyone that you have no personal liability for her debts. I am not entirely sure that you understand all that is considered her "estate". Her estate includes all of her assets. legally, her debts should be paid from those assets before anything is paid out to an heir. It sounds like you had joint bank accounts so i think the cash in those is yours not the estate. The house is not in her name is it? What about your grandmother's estate- You said she did not get to enjoy it, where is that money now, was it in your mother's name. In theory, you are suppossed to sell the car (even if you sell it to yourself at market as suggested) and anything else she owned. If you live together, it would be hard to prove who the furniture belonged to. All i would say is just be careful that you don't spend/use assets that were hers until you are 100% sure this is all settled. you would not want to end up having to pay the estate back.

 

[Mom2Nick]

While you have no personal liability for her debt, her estate is responsible. That means any assets she had including any money or posessions, need to be sold off to pay off the debt.

 

[LotsOfQuestions]

I agree with everyone that you have no personal liability for her debts. I am not entirely sure that you understand all that is considered her "estate". Her estate includes all of her assets. legally, her debts should be paid from those assets before anything is paid out to an heir. It sounds like you had joint bank accounts so i think the cash in those is yours not the estate. The house is not in her name is it? What about your grandmother's estate- You said she did not get to enjoy it, where is that money now, was it in your mother's name. In theory, you are suppossed to sell the car (even if you sell it to yourself at market as suggested) and anything else she owned. If you live together, it would be hard to prove who the furniture belonged to. All i would say is just be careful that you don't spend/use assets that were hers until you are 100% sure this is all settled. you would not want to end up having to pay the estate back.

I am so sorry for your loss.

I have to agree with this poster. You mentioned that the bank accounts were changed the week she died? Were they changed after she died? If they were still only in her name, then the balances in the accounts were part of the estate and would need to be paid to debt before the remainder could be touched by the heirs.

The credit card companies could come after the heirs for the amount that was in the accounts at the time of her death.

Also, your grandmother's estate. If your mother inherited it, then it is now part of your mother's estate and needs to be used to clear any outstanding debt.

As does the van.

Other than that, the credit card companies cannot come after you personally.

It does sound like you might need a good estate attorney.

Again, my condolences

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I agree with everyone that you have no personal liability for her debts. I am not entirely sure that you understand all that is considered her "estate". Her estate includes all of her assets. legally, her debts should be paid from those assets before anything is paid out to an heir. It sounds like you had joint bank accounts so i think the cash in those is yours not the estate. The house is not in her name is it? What about your grandmother's estate- You said she did not get to enjoy it, where is that money now, was it in your mother's name. In theory, you are suppossed to sell the car (even if you sell it to yourself at market as suggested) and anything else she owned. If you live together, it would be hard to prove who the furniture belonged to. All i would say is just be careful that you don't spend/use assets that were hers until you are 100% sure this is all settled. you would not want to end up having to pay the estate back.

No, my husband and I own the house she was living in with us. The bank accts were in both mine and her names and automatically became mine when she died, Joint tenant, right of survivorship, something like that. Who am I supposed to pay for the van? myself? I was her only child and she left everything to me. None of her possessions were named in the will, so I don't know how they could go after me. If they insist, I will pay some of the card, but not all, I didn't incur the debt.

I'm trying to compare this to my grandmother's estate as she had money in the bank in only her name and that did have to be used to pay one credit card she had that they didn't have that protection plan for when she was alive. The bank acct she shared with my mom automatically became my moms at time of death and she didn't have to list that in the estate. My mom did have 2 accts that she set up for her minor neice and nephew, but there is only $21 in one acct and $18 in the other, I will give them that if they insist, because I am going to use some of her insurance money to open them a small acct at another facility. But that is all the money listed in the estate. None of her furniture was listed, so no one knows it exists.

I was right there through the whole process of working my grandmother's estate, but my grandmother listed out each individual thing since she had 3 surviving children and a house full of furniture. I bought the house from the estate and my aunt and uncle had just come and collected their furniture 2 weeks before my mom passed. They really made things hard through the whole process and it should have never taken 7 years to probate.

I am so sorry for your loss.

I have to agree with this poster. You mentioned that the bank accounts were changed the week she died? Were they changed after she died? If they were still only in her name, then the balances in the accounts were part of the estate and would need to be paid to debt before the remainder could be touched by the heirs.

The credit card companies could come after the heirs for the amount that was in the accounts at the time of her death.

Also, your grandmother's estate. If your mother inherited it, then it is now part of your mother's estate and needs to be used to clear any outstanding debt.

As does the van.

Other than that, the credit card companies cannot come after you personally.

It does sound like you might need a good estate attorney.

Again, my condolences

Her bank accts were in both our names and the bank just noted that she was now deceased, so her last retirement check could be sent back and no one could use her check card, I have my own and my name is on the checks. The money (as little as it was) from my grandmother's estate was in our joint acct.

According to our attorney (who had just finished my grandmothers estate) said all I have to do is get a probate paper to take to the DMV to change the tag and the insurance. Otherwise we wouldn't have had to probate anything, being that I am her ONLY heir.

She did have that Account Protection on several of the cards, so they will write off all those accts up to $10,000 (hers weren't even close to that), there is just one that I think might give me problems. There were only a couple she didn't have the plan on, and they said they would probably write it off since she was a customer in good standing. I don't mind paying the medical bills, as they are small amounts as her health insurance paid most of them.

We were about a week away from going to an attorney to change her will and for me to make one when she passed. I am actually glad she didn't change it, although now I have to do something, because I don't have one, but Dh and I don't have children, it is just the 2 of us, so he would get everything. I will definitely look into that trust thing.

I'm not worried about having the money, because I do/will, I would just rather it not have to be paid to credit cards.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

OP - I'm sorry for your loss. It looks like you've already received some good advice from other posters.

One thing I would like to pass on to others who may face this situation is the ease of having a Living Trust as opposed to a Will. When my mother in law passed away, she had all of her assets in a Living Trust. My husband and his brother were named as trustees. With a trust, there is no probate. You need a lawyer to write up the trust but you don't need one to carry out the trust. You simply take the trust papers and death certificate to the bank and all of the accounts are transferred into the names of the trustee(s). You take the trust papers and the death certificate to the DMV and any vehicles are immediately transferred to the trustee(s). We were able to sell her house and split the proceeds with no problem at all. Since we had immediate access to her bank accounts, we were able to pay all of the bills that came in with her money. My husband and brother in law just had to sign the checks as trustees.

My parents have all of their assets set up in a trust and we plan to do the same very soon. For anyone who wants to avoid probate, you might want to look into getting a trust.

Thank you for the advice, I don't yet have a will and need to make one soon, so I will take this into consideration. My only heir at this time is my husband, but I do have a 2nd cousin that I am close to she wants me to make sure I include her, because she wants some of my furniture and my house (after DH and I are both gone of course). Funny how a 10 year old is all about family, guess she got it from my side, since I am all about family when it comes to sentiment, but I know I can trust that she will keep it in the family, as is should be. My grandparents were the first owners and I am the second, the mortgage people were astounded when they did the title search.

Suzanne

 

[Camicar]

My father died with more than $35K in credit card advances in debt alone. We were not liable for any of it. With an estate lawyer, we declared the estate bankrupt.

The only problem post-bankruptcy were the creditors -- who broke the law -- by calling us and hounding us for payment. They really tried to guilt trip us into paying. They got nothing except a cease and desist order from our attorney.

 

[Chicago526]

OP - I'm sorry for your loss. It looks like you've already received some good advice from other posters.

One thing I would like to pass on to others who may face this situation is the ease of having a Living Trust as opposed to a Will. When my mother in law passed away, she had all of her assets in a Living Trust. My husband and his brother were named as trustees. With a trust, there is no probate. You need a lawyer to write up the trust but you don't need one to carry out the trust. You simply take the trust papers and death certificate to the bank and all of the accounts are transferred into the names of the trustee(s). You take the trust papers and the death certificate to the DMV and any vehicles are immediately transferred to the trustee(s). We were able to sell her house and split the proceeds with no problem at all. Since we had immediate access to her bank accounts, we were able to pay all of the bills that came in with her money. My husband and brother in law just had to sign the checks as trustees.

My parents have all of their assets set up in a trust and we plan to do the same very soon. For anyone who wants to avoid probate, you might want to look into getting a trust.

This is how my parents set it up. Mom is gone but Dad is still with us. It's good to know how easy this all works. I knew that the trust would make it easier for us than a will, but I still wasn't sure how it all worked.

OP, as others have said, you don't have to pay her debt, it would come out of any money she may have left you, or the proceeds of the sale of her home (if she owned one). Any money left after her debts are paid is yours. If her estate is worth less than the debt, then they creditors get that and the rest is writen off, you don't owe on any balance left over. I'm not sure how her car and personal belongings figure in to that, I don't think you'd have to sell them but I don't know for sure (especially the car).

In any case, it sounds like it may pay to consult a lawyer. They may be able to do a one time consulation to walk you through what you need to do, rather than pay him/her to do it for you.