My father passed away early this year. A bill for over $1000 just came in for services performed in January, billed to his insurance in June. The insurance denied the claim. Are there guidelines or resources to help us know which bills we are responsible for?
An insurance claim? Call the company and chase that down. Any number of reasons it was denied. Don't panic. My FIL had a full set of dentures that cost $1200 which I paid for 6 months after his death. It didn't MATTER that he wasn't there to use them, he'd had them made and that bill was a debt to the estate.
Credit cards, dr bills, utilities, property taxes...they still need to be paid.
Dad had a trust, so the distribution of the estate went fairly smoothly. Hubby was executor, and he was told it would take about a year to "finalize". It did, in fact take almost exactly a year.
Any bills that come in are paid through the estate during a year time frame. An Estate of My Dad's Name checking amount is usually set up for these payments. Copies of bills and checks need to be kept. After the year is up [or whatever is the State law] then the Estate is closed and items left can then be distributed to the heirs.
I researched! What I learned is that if you pay once - they will come out of the woodwork and you will be responsible for everything.
My mother owed nothing and I paid nothing! The bills stopped coming.
Please be aware - and if you doubt, go to Howard Clark website - the children are NOT responsible for the bills and many really are bogus. I was getting them from California for a hospital in Mississippi - and I called the hospital in question and they thought I was nuts. My mother had NO outstanding bills!
Had he been without funds completely, no, we would not have paid from our own pockets.