How Do I Access a Deceased Owner’s Account? Part 2
Last week I addressed a question we get frequently in our office - how to access the financial account of a loved one who has died. The answer is not the same for each account. We must first determine whether the account is a probate or non-probate asset, meaning “is it controlled
How Do I Access a Deceased Owner’s Account? (Part 1)
It is a common question we get when someone calls our office after a family member dies. “Can I still access their account since I am agent under power of attorney?” or “Can I use the account to pay for the funeral and other bills that need to be paid?” These questions
Selling Real Estate of a Deceased Owner (Part 1)
I have written several blog posts about problems that arise when selling the real estate of a deceased owner. Here is another one that came to our office. An unmarried couple purchased a home together, which they held as tenants in common. While they referred to each other as fiancées, they never did
What is an Insolvent Estate? (Part 3)
In my blog post last week, I explained that when the assets of a decedent are insufficient to cover all estate debts, the debt is classified by priorities. Debts are entitled to be paid in a certain order of priority. Eventually, however, in the case of an insolvent estate we will get
What is an Insolvent Estate? (Part 2)
In this week’s blog post, I continue a discussion of insolvent estates. An insolvent estate is one in which there are not enough assets to cover all of an estate’s debts. The personal representative can’t, however, simply pay the bills as they come in. That’s because New Jersey probate law determines in
What is an Insolvent Estate? Part 1
As I have written about previously in this blog, estate administration involves gathering the assets of the person who died, paying all debts and taxes owing, and distributing the remaining assets to the rightful heirs - determined either by a will if there is one or by state intestacy laws
Dispute Over a Retirement Account (Part 1)
A recent Wall Street Journal article about a fight over a $1 million dollar retirement account reminded me of a similar case I had in my office 25 years ago. First about the case highlighted in the Journal. To summarize, Jeffrey, single with no children died in 2015. He had no will. The majority
Searching for Missing Heirs – Part 3
The last 2 weeks I have written about the increasing number of estate administration matters in our office in which there was no will and it is not clear who the heirs are. These are cases where the decedent had no spouse or children. We may know of the heirs on one
Searching for Missing Heirs (Part 1)
There have been a number of stories in the media about an epidemic of loneliness among the elderly. This is in part because families are smaller and more spread out. From an estate administration perspective, this means that many of these same people are dying alone and without apparent or at
Considerations When Leaving Estates to Non-U.S. Citizen Beneficiaries – Part 3
In my last 2 weeks’ blog posts I have been discussing the issues related to leaving your assets to beneficiaries who are not U.S. citizens. This week I want to cover a couple of recent scenarios in our office. One involved a decedent who was a U.S. citizen, died without a will