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Something does not sound right

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kpepperz

Member
What is the name of your state? IL

My sisters father in law passed away a week ago. The will names his only daughter as the executor of the will. When she went to the bank to take money out to pay the funeral bill, she discovered that the bank froze all accounts that had her dad's name on them, including accounts that were held jointly by her and him. She claims the bank told her that since he has dided, that the account will remain frozen indefinately. This apparently happened after the mother died as well 15 years ago. Apparently the lawyer told them the bank acted they way they should have. How are they supposed to pay the remaining bills from his hospitalizations and doctors bills, as well as the funeral expenses, if the accounts are frozen with no apparent way of unfreezing them? Even if an estate has a will, does it not have to go thru the court?

At the same time, a saftey deposit box that is held jointly with his ex-wife (he never removed her name) is frozen, but if the ex-wife came in and said that she lost her key, they will apparently let her access it with ID (this is what the bank apparently told the family). How can this happen with teh saftey deposit box, but not the jointly held accounts?

Something is not adding up here.
 


justalayman

Senior Member
has the daughter filed probate yet and received letters testamentary. Any account that is jointly held would not be accessible until the courts have actually accepted somebody as executor and given the authority to control the deceased monies.

a will does not mean anything until it is probated and the courts acknowledge it as authentic and enforceable.

as far as joint accounts, they should be accessible by the joint owner. As a joint owner, one person becomes sole owner at the death of the other and should not be prevented from accessing those accounts. That does sound odd. Have they given a justification for their actions?

Is it possible the title of the acount is not listed as a joint account but rather something else?
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Bank is nervously, although somewhat unreasonably, waiting for the executor to come forward so that bank can not be accused of distributing the money unfairly. They really didn't need to freeze it--if in fact the account has her listed as joint account owner, then she needs to insist that the check be issued to her, but she should go ahead and get her executor papers now just so there will be no question, even though the money will not go into the estate account but is payable all to her personally.

Ex-wife is rightfully the owner of the safety box deposit contents also--apparently he wanted her to have that or he would have changed the account if he wanted someone else to have it or left no one's name on the account if he wanted the items to go into his estate.

Are there going to be any other assets in this estate besides the accounts?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

kpepperz

Member
There was a car (with money still owed on it), a boat (which was willed to my BIL) a dog (willed to the daughter) , a waverunner (willed to a son) and stamps/coins (willed to another son). The home is to be sold and the proceeds divided 4 ways. The safety deposit box was not addressed, frankly, I think he overlooked changing the title on that.

Thank you for all your replies. This is information I think the family needs.
 

kpepperz

Member
I just received additional information. Apparently the lawyer told the daughter that the estate is not large enough to go to probate because "the amount of debt exceeds the amount of the estate". So basically, the family was told they have to pay for the funeral out of their pockets instead of using the deceased's money to pay final expenses. And without going to probate, the money stays where it is, forever??

I am thinking that a second opinion is in order. Am I correct?
 

justalayman

Senior Member
There was a car (with money still owed on it), a boat (which was willed to my BIL) a dog (willed to the daughter) , a waverunner (willed to a son) and stamps/coins (willed to another son). The home is to be sold and the proceeds divided 4 ways. The safety deposit box was not addressed, frankly, I think he overlooked changing the title on that.

Thank you for all your replies. This is information I think the family needs.
sorry. doesn;t sound like the BIL gets the boat and the son doesn;t get the waverunner and the stamps/coins aren;t going to the other son and you'all aren't splitting the proceeds of the house since there arent any apparently.

the box and the joint accounts are the only things that go to anybody other than the bill collectors.

actually it sounds like you are still needing to probate the estate so the bills can get paid or simply walk away from everything (not taking anything from the estate except the 2 things listed prior)

oh, except maybe the dog, unless it is some valuable breed that would need to be sold to apply the cash to the bills of the estate.
 

tecate

Member
You might check the Illinois statutes for debt priority. Do funeral expenses have priority over the general debts? In California, they do.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
actually you definately want to probate the will.

In Illinois it is a class 3 felony to secret the will in excess of 30 days.http://www.jas-law.com/lawyer-attorney-1152828.html, or at least turn it over to the proper authorities.

and there is this:

At this point, our focus turns to step #3, and to section 18-10 of the Illinois Probate Act. Section 18-10 sets forth a classification system for claims, from first class through seventh class. First class claims have the highest priority -- this class includes funeral and burial expenses, expenses of administration, and statutory custodial claims (you can read more about statutory custodial claims in an article I wrote, here).
from here: http://jas-law.typepad.com/death_and_taxes/probate_illinois_law/index.html
 

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