What to do when a loved one dies, Part 1

Last time we looked at what can be done when a loved one is dying; depending on the circumstances, it may range from simply waiting to doing some last minute estate planning.
What do you need to do after a parent, husband or wife passes away?  The precise steps are going to vary but typically will involve some or all of the following.
First,  you should get multiple copies of the death certificate. If you are dealing with a local funeral home, typically the funeral home will get these for you at or near their own cost.
Second, you should contact the Social Security administration, and any company that is providing any sort of pension.  Typically pensions either stop entirely or are reduced at the death of the person receiving the pension, but in some cases there are survivorship provisions, where some or all of the pension will continue to be paid to the surviving spouse. There may also be a death benefit under some plans.
Third, you should try to gather important papers; go through the house and see if you can find a will, any bank statements, any bills, insurance policies, annuities and see if there is any record of a safe deposit box.  If there are insurance policies, you should contact the company and provide a death certificate to them. In the case of bills, it will depend on the nature and amount of the bills.  Very generally, Florida only holds an estate responsible for bills for someone who has died to the extent that there are estate assets sufficient to cover those bills; and Florida has a definite hierarchy of who gets paid first, second and so on.  Additionally, under some circumstance Florida exempts certain assets from being used to pay bills of the person who died.  If there are a lot of bills and not much money to pay them, please talk to an attorney before using estate assets to pay bills.  Additionally, even if there are sufficient assets to pay the bills, whether you want to pay them will depend on the bill. Normally you would want to continue to pay any outstanding mortgage, but if the house is ‘upside down’, ‘underwater’ or is worth less than the outstanding mortgage it may not make sense to pay those bills.  This is particularly true where there was a ‘reverse mortgage’, where the parent took money out of the house during their lifetime; normally reverse mortgages are ‘non recourse’ loans and the bank or mortgage company cannot demand payment from other estate assets; all they can do is take the house back in foreclosure.
Likewise, if there are a lot of medical bills and few assets, or even credit card bills and very little money, the probate process can free up certain assets for heirs while providing that those bills go unpaid.  What assets are exempt and what bills get paid can get very complicated, but you need to consult with a probate lawyer to discuss this before you pay any bills.  If you have a Father, Mother or Husband or Wife who died in The Villages, Florida, call my office or call another probate attorney in the area.
Next time, we will look at determining if a probate is needed at all.