Probate

What Happens to Money After I die?

After you die, and there are accounts only in your name, no one can access your accounts. Then there are your creditors. Who will pay your credit cards? How will your mortgage get paid? Who will pay your funeral bills? All of this is handled through the probate process.

Administrative Probate

When a person dies and there is a need to access their assets, court intervention is needed. At that point, a petition to probate is drafted asking the Register of Wills to appoint someone in charge of the estate. That person is called the Personal Representative. If there is a last will and testament, then the person named has priority to be appointed. If there is a reason to challenge that appointment, then the matter turns to judicial probate and a hearing is held.

Inventory Requirements

After the appointment of a personal representative, there is a requirement to report back to the Register of Wills the exact amount the deceased owned. This has to be the value at the time of their death. Problems can arise, however, if it is unclear what assets they owned. This will usually require some effort to get access to other documents that would reveal the assets at issue.

Real Property issues

There is also going to be the issue of real property. Who can access the house? What can be taken from the house (if anything)? How are the bills going to be paid? What about homeowner’s insurance? Not only who pays it but should it be maintained? What are your responsibilities for contacting the current homeowner’s insurance company?

Solutions and a Plan for Efficient Estate Administration

Even with very normal probate administrations, there are a number of complications that almost always arise. For our practice, not only do we meet to discuss the case, we provide a written outline of what your family should expect in this particular estate. We will outline deadlines, tax filing obligations, probate filing obligations, etc. That way you have a roadmap of what to expect. We can recommend experts to assist you in this process – whether it is a CPA to file final income tax returns, or a realtor to sell the real property, or a clean-out crew to clean out the house.