Last WIll and Testament

[MikePA]

Regarding your role as executor...Three words of advice after being the executor my mom's estate.

1. Allow a lawyer in PA handle it. Charge the expenses to the estate.
2. Do not take an executor's fee.
3. Patience.

1. When my mom died, my 3 sisters 'encouraged' me to handle it myself. I bought several books, searched the Internet and deciced there was no way I'm am doing this on my own, and I lived in the same county as my Mom and had handled her taxes for the 10 years before her death. Since you're in another state, I really emphasize this. My mom did not have a complicated estate, basically savings. She had sold her home years before. Even so, the more I saw what was involved, the happier I was I hired a lawyer.

Doing it yourself will require a lot more time than using a lawyer. This increases the odds you will want to take a fee, which can cause other headaches. See next item.

2. Only one of my sisters had been an executor, so she knew how much time it took. If your aunt's relatives don't know how much time it can take, they can become offended at you 'taking more than your fair share', i.e., a part of the estate as a beneficiary as well as a fee. Hiring a lawyer solves this problem.

3. It took over a year for the final estate distributions to be completed and the final tax returns to be filed.

 

[Sigarms]

Just from perseonal experiece from my father in law.

If the mothers house is in all four names of the siblings, make sure no one has a lien or legal "issues" to speak of.

Long story, his mother is still in a nursing home, house not to be sold until her death, but...I wouldn't want to be in my FIL shoes (seems that the people that have the most common sense and responsibility always have to "pick up the pieces" for the relatives that have no common/financial sense).

 

[RonR]

Some random thoughts. I am not an attorney, nor do I work in that field; this is personal experience and info based on our wills. I think it is general enough to apply across state lines. Hope it helps.

Your estate will likely total more $$$$ than you believe it does!

When first spouse dies, if things are in joint tenancy with right of survivorship (JTROS), everything listed that way passes to the surviving spouse. For most of us, it is not an issue when the first dies. But when #2 dies, the estate can be over the threshhold and trigger more taxes. Our lawyer suggested having some or all of each spouse's stuff go to the children with death of 1st spouse. That way, when #2 dies, the estate left is below threshhold. The threshhold is changing yearly, so I won't post what I think it currently is.

You really ALL need to meet with some expert and do a will or trust or whatever you believe is best in your case. Wife's granddad didn't believe in lawyers (too expensive!), and had all his assets in his name only. When he died as a poor farmer in the early 80s WITHOUT a will, guess what, state law required a lawyer be in the picture and court assigned co-executors. The lawyer took like 6% of EVERYTHING! Land, farm machinery, house, savings--Grandpa could have saved his family THOUSANDS if he wasn't such a dunce!

Wife's great uncle, who never married, did have a will--and he'd done very well investing, tried his best to pass his stuff down before he died, but his estate taxes were still over $.5M!

Have kids or plan to? You really need to provide both financially and physically for them if they are young. You need to pick at least 2 people that are acceptable to you and AGREE to raise your young children if you both die at the same time. We chose not relatives, but close friends at the time we did our wills. Both sets of grandparents were upset at the time--they said "we're willing to raise them if you're gone." Our response was loving, but stern "Folks, you don't need teenagers in your home when you are 70-80". They understood, and as it is part of them have passed already.

So after you get someone to agree to raise them, you need to provide FUNDS to get them through college for the people raising them. We had our lawyer set it up like we wanted. I didn't want the step-parents to have to go to someone to buy the kids shoes, but I didn't want them to be able to squander the money either.

Thankfully, our kids are almost through college now, so we need to update our wills. They don't need physical parents so much now, but WOW, do they need someone to guide them with $$$$$$.

Turning a huge estate over to 20-30 yr olds is TROUBE. We set ours to they get living expenses and some special needs $$$$ over time through a trust established when we die, so they have to be 35 before they get the bulk.

Our attorney also added a "ne'er do well" clause--if one or more of the children have not demonstrated their good ability to handle money (foolish spending, drugs, no job, etc), the trustee is NOT to distribute $$$$ to them beyond basic needs until they can demonstrate responsibility!

Now that our kids are mostly resposible, at least in the law's eyes, we need to update our will. They are at an age where they could direct some of the spending, but I've already verbally discussed with them "if something happens to both of us, either go to Charlie, our CPA and friend, for money advice, or go to someone that he recommends."

As I said, random thoughts; hope they help ya.

ron

 

[Sigarms]

Mike, thanks.

Before my aunt had passed away, both her and I already had taken care of what needed to be done "money wise" (what money she had, I took care of) a couple of years ago so I could do her wishes (even though at the time, I didn't know that she listed me as the executor). My aunt and mother were very close, and my aunt trusted me, and I would never betray that trust, nor if I did, could I live with myself.

Between her belongings, bank accounts and any isurance, we are not talking about much, which works in my favor per the family. Aunt's will also stipulates that all assetts (sp?) to be divided between four god children, one of whom is myself.

Pretty "cut and dry" from what I can see.

 

[Sigarms]

Ron, yes you've given me something to think about.

At this point due to no children, I'm more concearned over with some "particular" people not being able to "touch" any assetts as well to make sure that people like who I was in the "Big Brothers" program (my "little brother") does "see something" becuase without that will, most likely he wouldn't.

Bottom line is if something happened to both my wife and myself, our parents would be involved first. Time goes by and parents are not there, then will have to re evaluate who is (as far as being the executor).

 

[EddieWalker]

This wont apply to your situation, but maybe this could be useful to others.

My parents are from Canada. The came here in the early 60's and awhile later, my Dad became a US Citizen. Mom put it off until a few years ago.

When they retired and starting re-organizing their lives, they found out that if my Dad passed away first, she would have to pay taxes on everything they had!!

Mom got off her but and became a US Citizen. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Eddie

 

[RonR]

Weird things can happen!

I found out several years after my Mother died that she had had a son out of wedlock 3 yrs prior to her marriage to my Dad. Baby was adopted out and I've never located him, if he is still alive.

Had I know about this, I would have saved him his third of her assets. As it is, as executor, I had no knowledge, and Mom didn't leave information, if she even knew where he was, so I'm clean as far as legally concerned (I think).

I disagree about taking no compensation. Mom lived 40 miles from us. It took a lot of gas ($$$) to go back & forth for all the trips. I kept receipts and took my expenses out. And I paid expenses for my sister's expenses when she helped as well.

ron

 

[Bird]

You're getting lots of good information, Joe, and then you'll still find that some things may be different in Pennsylvania. And there are many legal technicalities that I'll probably never understand. For example, when I was executor of my uncle's estate, the Texas probate court issued "Letters Testamentary" and that was what I needed to get into bank accounts, transfer title to motor vehicles, sell the house, etc. But when my Dad died several years later, the court issued a "Minument of Title" for Mother to transfer the title to a mobile home and motor vehicles.

When my Dad died over 9 years ago, he had not pre-arranged a funeral, except that he and Mother had bought lots in the cemetery where they were to be buried. However, he did have a life insurance policy and the funeral home took care of filing the insurance claim as well as obtaining the death certificates. Of course the funeral director is my son-in-law, but he said they do that for everyone. So Mother did have him pre-arrange her funeral, and there was little to do and very little expense this past week for hers. As Hakim said, the funeral home will obtain the death certificates: $20 for the first one and $4 for each additional copy this past week.

 

[midlf]

In my experience 6 death certificates are not enough. Get a least 12. When my dad died some item required my mother's death certificate, and that was 10 years after she died. Fortunately my dad was VERY organized and he had a copy and we knew where it was.

One other thing that can really really help is information from the person you are the executor for. In our case my father had written out a 26 page letter listing all his assets, insurance, personal property and where to find the papers and who to contact. This was very helpful. It also had some good stories as he listed why he had kept various personal items for a great many years. (And he still complained about all the baseball cards his mother had sent to the war paper drive when he was off on his WWII government sponsored trip around the world.)

 

[RonR]

Good point about the instructions.

We've finally put together notebooks that contain all the bank info, insurance papers, etc.

Makes it easier for us to manage also.

ron