How Not to Leave an Estate
My cousin Erwin was a rascal. When he died at age 70, his assets included a 401k, a life insurance policy, and a truck. He also had a lot of credit card and medical debt.
Since I lived the closest, and because my wife, Peggy Sanders, is an elder law attorney, it fell to me to be the estate administrator. My goal was to get as much from his estate as possible for his estranged daughter.
This took some doing on Peggy’s part. The court hesitated to give me power over his estate, but after his daughter and brother signed off, I was appointed as administrator. I had the ability to call insurance companies, banks, Social Security and to gain access to Erwin’s personal property, locked in a storage facility.
Erwin hadn’t updated the beneficiary on the life insurance policy or the 401k. As a result, from heaven, he showered a former girlfriend, who he broke up with years before he died, with about $30,000, much of it tax-free. Lucky her. There was nothing I could do about it.
That left the truck, which was in good shape, and the debt. His daughter wanted the truck for her daughter.
Once Peggy filed the appropriate documents, I was able to get the title to the truck from the state vehicle licensing office. Erwin’s daughter and her daughter drove up from Oregon and drove it home, along with Erwin’s personal effects from his storage units.
That left his debt to deal with: credit cards, and medical expenses from his last illness. Peggy served his creditors with a Notice to Creditors, giving them 30 days to respond or the debt goes away. One credit card company, which failed to respond in time, wrote to me, “We know you don’t owe this amount, but would you pay anyway?” Answer: “Umm. No.” Because Peggy had served the Notice to Creditors, that credit card company had no right to collect.
This took a few months, but in the end, we were able to put his worldly estate to rest.
On a nice day, we held a ceremony near where he grew up and scattered his ashes in Puget Sound.
Lessons learned
Take care of this stuff before you die.
Keep your beneficiaries up to date.
The right documents open doors.
Hire an Elder Law Attorney. Estate administration is complicated. An attorney can save hours of wasted time, confusion and frustration.
I would have been lost without Peggy’s help.
