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Who pays for the funeral?

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ds1528

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? The state where the woman died is Rhode Island. She was on permanent disability and recieved goverment assistance. She recently died and is survived by two estranged sons age 24 and 21. The chilkdren live in Texas and are the sole heirs. She also has a living mother and sister who live in Rhode Island. The question is who has to handle all of these arrangements, funeral service (if any), plans for burial...etc. She has no will. She has no money or assets to speak of, and she probably has some debt. The children are recent college graduates without jobs and have no monaey of their own. What are we legally supposed to in this matter? As their father I am trying to help them negotiate this very trying and emotional situation. I don't even know where to begin. I don't even know where the body is. Any advice please.
 


justalayman

Senior Member
well, technically, the estate is liable for the expenses. If there is no value to the estate, then you all can let her lay in the mortuary if you want to spend time arguing about it and nobody wants to pay. Nobody has to pay for anything.

This is where compassion comes in and who ever wants mom to have a decent funeral will take the expense on or maybe everybody will agree to chip and and take care of things.

as to who is in charge of arrangements; I have not looked it up for Rhode Island but generally the next of kin has the rights to make any decisions if they wish to.
 

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