Trying to settle Moms "estate"
 

In an unexpected act of honesty the nursing home sent me a check for a few thousand dollars. But it's payable to her estate and of course I only had durable PoA not executor. So I need to set up an estate fund ASAP.

I have the IRS form SS-4 but am wondering if anyone here has done this and are there any "gotchas" they can advise on?

TIA

Yes, we just went through this. You dont need to set up an estate if her assetts are ubder $50,000, atleast here in indiana. If she has kids, charities, etc, and they are in the will, then the estate is lessened by these dristributions. We sold moms car, i bought her house, and then the belongings were split up with thec3 kids, thus reducing her overall goods. Setting up an estate is a drawn out process and can go on for years. Our lawyer advised us not to because all the court things you have to file. Another thing about your check: send the check back and have the nursing home make out another check payable to you and her. This way you can deposit it in her account since you have POA, thus being able to split this check up like above. Hope this helps.

I went through this with my mother. Wisconsin publishes a guide and a checklist, and at least in WI you can do it without an attorney. NJ or whatever state she resided in when she passed may be different.
POA ends when she passes, so you no longer have that role.
Did she have a will? Did she name an executor?
My mother had a will but did not name an executor, even if she had, I would have had to apply and be approved to administer the estate. First question is the value of the estate, and if the check is it, it would probably qualify for informal probate.

Check her state's website, there's hopefully a guide to walk you through everything.

With my mother, she left a will, but it still took me almost 9 months to wrap up everything, and that's just splitting everything between my brother and me.

The check is relatively small approx. $4K. I asked the nursing home to re-issue the check but they refused so that's out. As noted my PoA expired when Mom passed and we never set up an executor. I'll look into informal probate.

Hope things work out your way- my condolences!

I'm sad to say my Mom also recently passed away. I had a similar situation to you and just took the check and a copy of Mom's death certificate to my bank and they let me deposit the check into my account. I was in and out in 5 minutes.

Bring the POA to the bank with the records, set an account under the estate name.

Deposit. Done.

rjp

This could work too, it seems to depend on bank policy but had it go both ways in NV.

rjp

Tried that. They denied me saying the PoA expired with her death. I'm going to try an informal probate on my own. Wish me luck.