One early challenge arising from a loved one’s death is going through his or her various accounts and taking the necessary steps to cancel these accounts or transfer ownership of the account to another person. Most people have gone paperless and access their bills online such as utilities, insurance, memberships, medical prescriptions, and other recurring payment programs. In addition to these bills, some people subscribe to multiple content digital subscription services. Settling these accounts helps avoid unnecessary charges and protect against identity theft and fraud. If the duty to handle outstanding accounts falls to you, you will first want to identify which accounts your loved one held and then figure out what to do with them. The first step is to figure out what accounts the deceased had by looking through their mail, email, or phone notifications. You may get lucky, as the deceased may have compiled a list as part of their estate plan. Deciding Whether to Cancel or Keep an AccountOnce you have identified what accounts were in the deceased’s name, you can move on to the next step of deciding whether to cancel or keep them. Cell PhoneDo not deactivate a loved one’s cell phone service until you are certain that you no longer need the phone. Access to other accounts that need to be cancelled or transferred and most importantly, access to bank accounts and other assets, may be conditioned on receiving a security code by text to this phone. Such access may be impossible once the phone number is no longer in service. UtilitiesUtilities may need to be temporarily kept in the deceased’s name, transferred to another account holder, or canceled, depending on the circumstances.
Home SecurityHome security system deserves the same consideration as utilities. A security system may help to preserve the assets of the estate, particularly for a home left vacant while the estate is settling. It may even be necessary to install a home security system if the house is left vacant for any period of time. The Easy Ones – Content Subscription Service Unless the subscription service has a shared family plan, these services can most likely be canceled. These services are largely digital media services:
Physical Delivery ServicesU.S. Mail Service should be transferred to you by change of mailing address. Other regular deliveries such as physical newspapers, newsletters, and magazines should be cancelled. Do not forget delivery services subscription box services like Amazon Prime, Walmart+ and Chewy. Members to these services may have recurring monthly deliveries for certain items. Post-Mortem Trust Administration / Probate and Legal Assistance As you deal with the emotional challenges of a death in the family, you may be simultaneously navigating legal issues related to losing someone close to you. Being named a successor trustee or personal representative (executor) come with a lot of responsibility.
Our estate planning attorneys offer services tailored to trustees, personal representatives and other loved ones help them do right by their loved one—and the law. For answers to your estate administration questions, reach out to our team. We discuss paying those debts that are necessary to preserve the assets of the estate such as utilities. When administering the estate of a decedent (wrapping up the affairs of someone who died), you want to avoid loss or waste of the assets, so expenses incurred before and after death that are necessary to preserve an asset of the estate are generably allowable and should be paid. Consult with an attorney licensed in your state to find out more. More information is available at www.rightsizelaw.com. Just as spending a day under the summer sun without proper protection can leave you with a painful sunburn, an estate plan that does not carefully consider nontraditional parent child relationships can harm you or your loved ones. The Parent-Child RelationshipAn effective estate plan will explore the parent-child relationship of everyone potentially involved. While inheritance rights may arise from the legal relationship between the parent and child, the scope, size and shape of any inheritance will depend on whether the deceased person completed any actions to create an estate plan. If no such plan exists or is invalid, then a child’s inheritance (or even a parent’s inheritance from a deceased child) will depend on the applicable laws prescribing a “one-size fits all” estate plan known as intestacy law. Intestacy laws determine who is entitled to inherit and how much the person in entitled to inherit. A few of the immediate questions to explore are:
When it comes to a child's legal ability to inherit from parents, adopted children and biological children are considered equal in the eyes of the law. However, situations involving stepchildren or presumed child can be more complicated. StepchildA stepchild is a child of one’s spouse or civil partner, but not one's own offspring, either biologically or through adoption. Unless the child is legally adopted, a stepchild has no legal right to expect an inheritance from a stepparent. The stepparent can however choose to provide for the stepchild in his or her estate plan. In that case, the stepchild would inherit from the stepparent in the same manner as any other beneficiary would inherit from the stepparent. Presumed Child In some cases, a person may be considered a presumed child, which means a court recognizes the person as the child of the deceased, even if the person was not adopted. Legal recognition for presumed children is based on public policy that certain individuals should be treated as parents because of their relationship with a child and the role they assume in that child's life. The criteria for being a presumed parent can vary by jurisdiction, but they often include the following:
District of Columbia - Decedent's Child and Heir in EquityIn 2019, the DC Court of Appeals clarified, that the District of Columbia could recognize presumed children for intestacy purposes. The court held: if an individual seeks to establish that he is an intestate decedent's child and heir as a matter of equity, he must prove that the decedent objectively and subjectively stood in the shoes of his parent. In Re: Estate of Rosa North Ford, 200 A.3d 1207, 1215 (D.C. 2019). According to the Court, any person claiming to be the child of a deceased person and an heir as a matter of equity, “the putative child must prove that, as a minor, the decedent gave him a permanent home.” The Court further instructed that the probate court should consider the following questions:
Specific Gifts to Descendants or Do the Gifts Lapse?Parent and child relationship can be even more problematic when an estate plan makes specific gifts to friends and individuals who are not well known. These beneficiaries entitled to specific gifts are usually not the same as the residuary beneficiaries. When a beneficiary to specific gift predeceases the testator, the administrator of the estate plan must consider whether the gift will lapse or will the specific gift go onto the descendants of the predeceased beneficiary. This distinction will have significant consequences – if the gift lapses, then the gift will remain part of the estate and will be distributed to the residuary beneficiaries. If the gift goes onto the descendants of the predeceased beneficiary, then the residuary beneficiaries will not receive that potion of the estate constituting the gift. Therefore, the administrator of the estate plan must inquire into whether the beneficiary had children, biological, adopted or even presumed children in order to determine whether the gift can still be made. In the absence of perfect knowledge then the default rule should be that such gifts will lapse. ConclusionThe relationship between a parent and child can take many forms. It is therefore important that you discuss with your estate planning and financial advisors the need to have an estate plan that clearly identifies your intended beneficiaries and the legal relationship of those beneficiaries to you. Your discussion should also examine relationships with any individuals who may not be immediate or obvious family members. With a well thought-out, comprehensive estate plan, you can rest assured that your wishes regarding inheritance will be clear and properly documented so they can be legally enforced.
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