Week Three was getting the death certificates together and mailing the credit card companies, the insurance company, and the credit rating agencies.  I covered this last week, but this week the letters were stuffed and sent out. 

Further, our mother does receive money back from her apartment in the retirement community.  When she purchased her apartment, she had one of two options, purchase the apartment at $X.XX and when she passed, that’s it, all is gone, no refund, or purchase the apartment for two times X and receive approximately 90% back upon passing.  She did the latter.  Unfortunately, she never designated where the funds should go.  Further, our mother had a trust, but at this stage, I am not sure if the apartment was owned by the trust.  If not, in theory, the money may need to be run through probate.  Further, how do taxes work, not her final tax filings, but rather, what taxes may or may not be owed on these funds.  I literally have no idea. 

We debated whether or not we should wait before we move the money to our mom’s checking account, the checking account with whom my sister is a joint holder.  Ultimately, I said no, we put the money in the account, but don’t distribute it.  We can then determine where and how it needs to be handled.  You do not want assets sitting in the account of others, my experience tells me always settle it first, don’t spend it, but get it and keep it safe.  Note, in theory our sister could take the money from the account and my brother and I would have no recourse.  In this case, we are very close and I see zero trust issues, however, I would recommend this route for everybody, it really depends on your relationship and level of trust. 

From my perspective, this is where the maze begins.  We all know this, nothing is simple with laws and regulations and how they end up getting applied by the government.  My philosophy is, you do your best to work in the system, if you keep records, have a reasonable process, even if it’s not perfect, in general you will find things will work out.  Even if you make a mistake, I have found, for the most part, government employees will work with you to correct. 

At this point, I am leaving for an already planned vacation.  I will check in, but our mother’s estate will be taking a little break.  😊 Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!