Strictly speaking, this entry in our series isn’t about estates. It’s about things that are harder to quantify and to legislate. But it fits the general theme of “things you should know when, or preferably before, someone close to you dies.” This article is going to be the heaviest of the series, both in length … Read more
Okay. This is the section of the series that I probably need to say the least about, because every other thing you hear about preparing for death nowadays tells you to have a living will. But there’s a lot more you can do to prepare your loved ones to make some decisions which are not … Read more
You’ve added up all the numbers. Probably three times, because you were horrified the first two times. But no matter how you slice it, the estate’s assets just won’t pay all the debts. The estate is referred to as “insolvent”. What do you do? Priority of debts. Suppose the estate has $10,000 in assets and … Read more
All right. You’ve sold all the assets the estate is going to sell and you’re ready to close this chapter of your life, at least legally and financially. You have to settle the accounts. The optimistic ending. So in theory, at this point, you take all the money the estate has. You pay off all … Read more
In which we look at getting a lawyer and how the estate pays out its debts. The lawyer. So how much did it cost us to hire a lawyer for the whole process? Here’s the actual numbers: $600 up front given to the lawyer for the paperwork fees (see below; some of this may be … Read more
Okay, I hate this. I hate that so much of what one has to think about regarding a loved one’s death is how to pay bills. But welcome to a capitalist society. You have to pay the bills. The person has to be embalmed or cremated; that costs money. The grave has to be dug … Read more
When my mother died, my wife and I were out of the hospital maybe 10 minutes later. The first phone call we made was to the funeral home. Arranging for the remains. Funeral homes generally have a 24-hour answering service. You say “hi, my name is blah, X just died at hospital Z, please notify … Read more
In this article, I will discuss the assets or payments you get when a person dies, and how not all of it is “estate” or “inheritance”. The notion of “the estate”. We all have an idea of what the estate is: it’s the deceased’s assets, which are used to pay off their remaining debts, and … Read more
Not long after my mom died, I promised to write down some of what I learned in the process of dealing with her estate. Here’s the first part of that, in which I talk just a little bit about wills, personal representatives, and getting a bank account for the estate. Proving the will. Ideally, the … Read more