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krazzzzy8 · Apr 28, 2007, 01:27 PM

My mother recently passed away leaving several insurance polices, all but one named myself as the beneficiary the other named my father who passed away 8 years ago no one else was named as a second beneficiary just as children myself and brother. She left a will and named myself as sole beneficiary and stated my brother get 1000.00 and that is it
The insurance company cut a check To the estate of (mothers name) I do not want to set up an estate account if not needed. An attorney said that I will have to and that any bills she owed will be paid from the estate account My mother was Japanese, she did not understand a lot of thing and would not want this what can I do

Fr_Chuck · Apr 28, 2007, 01:48 PM

Yes you have to have a estate account, any money she had in a checking account or savings account, any property of hers that is sold goes into it,
And the ONE life insurance policy that was made to your father and payable to the estate has to go in there.

The other ones in your name just go to you and does not go into the estate.

And it does not matter what you mom wants, it is what the law is, and what is suppose to be done, and your mom would not want her bills paid ? You have to pay all of her outstanding bills from her money, her property and her estate, after those bills are paid, if there is any money left, you divide it as the will says, if there is 1500 left, your brother gets 1000 and you get the rest.

But the life insurance where you are the bendficiary, go straight to you, not into the estate.

krazzzzy8 · Apr 28, 2007, 02:00 PM

OK then how or who is to decide on wich bills to pay its not a very large amount not enough to pay every thing and before we even knew about this policy I was making arangements to pay or negotiat these bills down thank you What about the will

Fr_Chuck · Apr 28, 2007, 02:37 PM

Ok, first YOU are not personally responsible for any bills, so don' ever use your own personal money, only pay from your mom's money, not from the insurance money that was in your name.

Your state will have specific laws as to who gets paid first. Is there a home that she owns, did she own a car. I can't ell you about your specific state laws.

krazzzzy8 · Apr 28, 2007, 06:21 PM

She owned nothing we had her come live with us after second stroke we made her quit job(still was working at 74) and moved her from the west coast to the east

Fr_Chuck · Apr 28, 2007, 08:41 PM

First I am sorry, I should have mentioned how sorry I am that you lost your mother. I know such a loss is hard, and trying to deal with all of the money is even harder.

But as I mentioned each state has diffent rules as to who gets paid first, normally it will be the funeral home ( and that may well take all of the money plus some) so if all of her money is gone after paying the funeral home, just send a death certifciate to all the other people with a note that all of the estate money is gone and there will be no further payments, don't give them your social, so there is nothing they can do.
If you or your brother is listed on any of the debts, credit cards or any debts, then the other listed perosn may have to pay those debts.