If my friend, for whom I am POA both financial, medical and trustee, dies without a will, what are the ramifications?

The distribution of assets for a person who dies without a will (dies "intestate") is governed by state law. Therefore, the answer to your question depends on which state the friend dies a resident of. Probate is the process where a Will exists and is admitted to the Court; in New York, Administration is the process where someone dies without a Will. Contacting an attorney familiar with probate/administration is important. In addition, because you are Trustee, you may have heightened fiduciary responsibilities, depending upon the law in your state. Best of luck!

Sometimes when there is a trust, there is a small pour over will as well. My understanding is that if all your friend's assets are in the trust, there is no need for a will. Check with the attorney who drew up the trust.

You know, maybe a simple online will would be appropriate. Maybe those things could just be put into the trust. The house would be the big issue unless it has already been sold. An executor would not have to do much at all, just pay and leftover bills with the savings and see about an estate sale for the stuff in storage. Not sure what the state would do.

If there are no surviving relatives and you are not mentioned depending on the state,it goes to the state and anyone has to "battle it out" in court..just make sure there is a will...good luck

Everything will go backtoestate orProbater. Try to get a will done. Incases some familymember happen toshow up. Get alawyer very soon.My keys get stick.

If your friend has a trust, as you indicate, that covers the will. The real estate is normally rolled into the trust and the actual will is for property, such as jewelry, household items that are special to one person or another, etc. If there is no real estate or valuable property to speak of, a will isn't really needed. Also, if accounts (savings and checking) were JTROS then both or all signers are equally able to write a check and empty the account. People get confused sometimes about the will thing. For example, my now deceased MIL had a will that had been written years ago with both her sons (one is my husband) as joint on everything. Also both were POA and joint executors. I won't get into the issues joint everything can create but, be that as it may, her home was sold when she went into a nursing home. All of her goods were given away or sold in an estate sale, so really all that was left were a few insignificant (from a value standpoint) personal items, like her wedding ring, and her bank accounts and some stock. She continued to believe that since her will stated that everything would basically be split between the brothers, that applied to her accounts. My husband and I prepared for retirement but BIL outright said he didn't. And he had control of her physical check book and lived in town where she did. At any time either of the brothers could have cleaned out all accounts; not just because they were POA but also they were joint with rights of survivorship. We didn't totally trust BIL but that is aside. Wills are for basically real property and physical valuables. If something has an emotional connection to a particular person, that needs to be written down. But a trust will cover everything, including real estate, and then the individual go into the will. Does this help?

What I was trying to say about wills above is that a trust makes a simple will fairly optional and will keep everything out of probate. If you are the trustee of her trust, your job will be fairly cut and dried. Whomever she named as her heir(s) will get whatever property she has left and they will have to divide it. Not your problem.

Ginach is correct. It is called a pour over will and basically optional. Everything goes to her heir and he can dole out whatever he wants to. You can move on. Her setting up a trust was very proactive on her part, far from lack of planning as indicated when people pass 'intestate'. Also, as pointed out every state is different, but where we live - and we do have a trust as set up by an estate planning attorney and annually review and update things - the actual will is not even required to be notarized. It is a simple page that has lines for items, names, addresses of where those people live and that's it. So if she has a trust, I would ask a lawyer what she needs as far as a form for that 'pour over' will. He/she can provide you with that form, you can ask your friend if there's anything she wants to put down and that is the end of it. The trust is the BIGGIE and she's taken care of that. Good for her. It should make your life easier and no, you are not neglecting what she asked of you. You are a good friend.

If your friend has the time and ability to make a will, I would try to have her make one. If she dies intestate (without a will), then the state where she lives has a law on how to distribute her assets to her blood relatives. I would try to find how her state handles people who pass without a will. It varies state to state.
Good Luck.

If you own property with someone and one of the owners dies intestate, the state may sell the property to liquidate funds and distribute the assets to remaining relatives. That means you will be out of the home and not have control over how assets will be handled. The time to ask your friend to get a trust or even a will is TODAY.