Intestate estate

On Mar 28, 6:56 am, "kkaiser1" <kkais...@juno.com> wrote:

> My father-in-Law died yesterday.

Sorry to hear about your family's loss.  You have our sympathies.

> He has at least three bank accounts,
> that we know of, and only his name is on them.

Although it's too late to help your M-in-L with hindsight, hopefully other people reading this will realize that this is not the best way to plan for an easy transition and to provide for your loved ones.   Estate planning isn't only for old people; a breadwinner can die at any time, and, realizing this, he should at least inform those he loves in some way of what steps they will have to take to access his assets after he dies.   Much easier, yet, is to set up joint accounts or "pay on death" accounts or living trusts (if you don't want the beneficiary to have access to the funds while you are still alive) that avoid any transition time after you die; the money automatically becomes accessible to the heirs without having to go through probate.  But none of that applies to your M-in-L, who has to deal with the facts on the ground as they are, after it's too late to plan.

> He did not have a will,

All that means is, the portion of his estate that has to pass thru probate (not including any joint or POD accounts, or trusts) will pass to his heirs according to the presumptions contained in the intestacy laws of the state where he resided at the time of his death, which probably means your M-in-L will get a major share but some will also go to his children.   If he held property (such as bank accounts, but basically anything else too, including a home) in his sole name, I'm afraid the only way to transfer title to those assets is through probate.

> and we don't know about life insurance.

There's basically only one way to find out about that, which is to look through all his papers and see if you find anything.  A subset of that approach is to check his incoming mail for a period of time and see if he gets mail (bills, privacy statements, annual reports, etc.) from a life insurance company, then you'll know who to contact and advise of his death to claim benefits.

> My questions is, How can my
> Mother-in-Law access these accounts to pay his final expenses without
> the added cost of hiring a lawyer?

Personally I think this is a penny wise pound foolish approach.   Lawyers who handle estate administration have their fee bills closely regulated by state law and/or by specific court oversight and approval before they get paid, and they are generally not allowed to charge anything up front; the fee will eventually come out of the amount of your F-in-L's assets that pass thru probate, not exceeding a maximum percentage set by law in most states.   At the very least it wouldn't hurt to set up an initial consultation (find a lawyer who will do that for free) for a half hour or so, to find out more specifics about the application of your state's laws in your particular situation, and then decide whether it makes economic sense to hire him or not.

If your M-in-L chooses not to hire a lawyer to help her with the estate, she can still apply to the appropriate court on her own to open probate and get herself assigned as the personal representative (PR) or administrator of your F-in-L's decedent estate.  This can be done immediately if she knows what she is doing.   The court will issue her a properly formatted, officially sealed, Letter of Appointment making her the PR, which she can then take around and show to banks to see if they have an account in her late husband's name.   The banks are perfectly correct not to speak with her about his private affairs otherwise; but once she has been appointed his PR, she stands in his shoes and has control over his assets, including the right to withdraw or transfer funds from any accounts he held.   Note well, though, that she has to exercise that right as PR for the benefit of ALL the legal heirs, not just for herself.   Your F-in-L's assets now belong to a new entity called his "intestate estate", and after paying off his legitimate creditors (including medical and funeral expenses) what is left over will have to be distributed to the heirs in accord with the laws of your state.

If your M-in-L isn't up to handling all the duties that would be imposed on her as PR of her late husband's estate while she is still grieving, or just because she's clueless about what to do (no aspersions intended, but anyone who doesn't do this stuff for a living is going to have a steep learning curve at least initially) it would make a  lot more sense to pay a professional to do this for her.   Whatever she decides, I wish your family good luck,
--
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Mike Jacobs
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