Dad died from asbestos cancer, I got mom set up for lawsuit, which she gets a check sometimes. We opened an estate acct at her bank (which I thought I was on it "estate" also) but I am not. I am on her account, but not the estate acct. She has dementia, can't walk and can't take care of her affairs. I have a POA but her bank will not accept it when I go to try to cash or deposit her "estate check", because it is payable to: the estate of---- my dad. What do I need to do to get my name on this estate account, or be able to take it to my bank, or? Thanks for your help.
If their alive, you’d be a POA / DPOA instead.
I’m surprised bank won’t accept the check to be deposited in full into the account as long as it’s signed just like check is written. You won’t be able to spend any of it but at least it’s deposited and getting interest. It kinda needs to be deposited so it can make interest as it shows you are doing good fiduciary duty as moms POA. Have you tried this...??
My guess is that it’s going to be a probate attorney that’s needed as the $ is technically $ of dads estate. Not mom’s $; mom is beneficiary or heir.
- If probate was never opened, it needs to be. & I’d try to get probate atty that is experienced with wrongful death settlements & elderly heir (mom). Find one you feel comfortable with as it could be years of a relationship as probate stays open till the last check comes in. Sigh!
- Now if probate was opened when dad died and then closed BUT the lawsuit settlement came in afterwards, then probate needs to be reopened. I’d suggest you call the old probate guy to see if they want to deal with it or they pass it onto an atty that does wrongful death Estate stuff. They’d likely would file for you to get appointed as executor/ administrator for the estate by probate judge. You’d get paperwork that states this & this the bank uses to set you up for a partial distribution of estates assets by check from the bank account for your mom as heir as allowed by court. This could get complicated paperwork & sometimes families have the probate atty be the administrator or court names an independent administrator. BUT realize the $ means new assets to Dads estate so your probate atty. will need to do a new Assets of a Estate list to court and do so every time a check gets deposited. Yeah totally not simple. The estate will have $$ so Estate pays the atty & courthouse filing fees. You should personally have no out of your own pocket costs.
I’d guess that you’d only be allowed to take out a limited amount of $ each time a checks comes. You need to present bills to show why mom needs $. So start pulling bills together so you have a xerox stack of bills that atty can file with court that is needed as a distribution from estate bank account.
I’d bet there’s going to be serious Estate taxes due on the settlement $$. Probate atty should be able to find a taxation atty to figure the estate taxes due. It’s not ever a DIY project imo. Taxes are kinda why $$ needs to stay in bank account. Sigh!
I’m sure It’s beyond frustrating as moms got bills AND moms got $$, but mom has no access to it!! Really the probate atty can get things resolved pretty quickly to set up if you gather up all the paperwork & bills to take to the Atty. office. Good luck, get organized & call about till you find an atty that you feel is a good fit. As a final thought, the law firm that did the asbestos lawsuit, if you have a contact there, call them to ask if they could get a couple of names of attys locally for your mom.
And Mom gets lawsuit settlement checks made out to “estate of”, but you don’t want to deposit them into this existing account but instead deposit checks into another account of mom’s that your dpoa on or deposit into your own personal account at your bank, right?
What’s the reason why the checks aren’t deposited into the existing estate account? and Why not let whomever assigned executor for the estate write checks to pay the whatevers for mom’s bills???
Trying to get around this looks pretty sketchy whether it is or not.
In my experience as executor a couple of times, to be ok for banking, that estate of account would need a estate tax ID # from IRS; or with Letters Testamentary issued with executor named in the LT as the SS# on the account for banking rules. Why isn’t executor taking the lead in all this?