Managing a parent's estate can be complicated by many factors, including the items and assets that they own. They may have owned property, ran a business, have open loans and other bills to pay.
Similar to approaching a Home Cleanout, it can be helpful to make a plan for dealing with a parent’s assets by breaking things down into smaller, more manageable tasks. This plan includes the following steps:
It is important to ensure the property remains safe if there is no longer someone living there.
If you are the executor of your parent’s estate, you’ll likely need to take inventory of your parent’s assets for the probate process. Check your parent’s mail for account statements and search the house for deeds, property titles, business agreements and tax returns. If your parent had a financial advisor or accountant, that professional will likely know what assets your parent had.
Paperwork to gather include:
It is important to ensure that rent, utilities, mortgage payments, or other bills continue to be paid while you proceed through the probate process.
If you happen to be a joint account holder on any accounts with your parent, you can access those accounts to ensure bills continue to be paid.
If you are named as the executor of your parent’s estate you can access their bank account to potentially help with the bills.
If you do not have access to their accounts then you will still need to determine a way to pay any outstanding bills.
It is often necessary to create a bank account for the Estate of the deceased in order to properly receive payments due to your parent or to their estate. This is also important when it comes to filing a final tax return for your parent.
In order to create an account you will need to provide the death certificate as well as the proper legal documentation showing that you are the executor of the estate.
As executor of your parent’s estate, you will also have authority to sell assets, as long as those assets are not intended to be distributed to other beneficiaries.
If assets are still property of the estate, then the payment should be made to the Estate and should be deposited in the Estate bank account.
Please refer to the section covering Estate Sales for more information.
Once the probate process has closed, the court will formally distribute assets as designated by the will or determined by the probate process.
If you or a sibling are named the beneficiary on your parent’s retirement account, contact the company that administers the account to find out what steps you need to take to transfer the funds. However, you won’t be able to access funds from accounts or transfer property in your parent’s name only until granted access by the probate court.
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