Estate even necessary?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Deceased son lived in IL. Father lives in LA.

Background: My son served two tours of duty in Iraq. The second was particularly hard on him. During the second tour he was diagnosed with PTSD. He was being treated by the V.A. and that treatment continued after he was honorably discharged. Despite this treatment he committed suicide at the end of June 2010. He has virtually no assets. His vehicle was repossessed. He was divorced but has two small children living with their mother. He had a credit card bill of around $19,000.00 and a few other smaller debts. The only furniture he had was Walmart grade stuff given to him by friends with a street value of maybe $100.00. We gave the furniture (the stuff that remained undamaged by the consequences of the suicide) to Salvation Army. His checking account had $13.00. He had 2 investment accounts that have a combined value of less than $50.00. There is no life insurance that was in effect. He was renting his apartment from his best friend’s girl friend. His suicide caused significant damage—including structural—to the apartment. The hazmat bill alone was $24,000.00. They cannot re-rent the apartment until the structural damage is fixed. They were good friends to Matt and tried to help him. It wasn’t right that they should have to be repaid for their friendship in this manner. My son had a computer and camera that was worth, maybe, $1,000.00 (he was in college majoring in photography). I gave the computer and camera to his friend/landlord to help cover some small portion of the damages and lost rental income they sustained because of the suicide. My wife and I paid for his funeral out of our personal funds.

Questions: What would be the consequences of doing absolutely nothing except informing his creditors of his death. Are there any laws that would prohibit this? Is there any other pertinent information that I should consider?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

There are no consequences of you informing the creditors of his death and it is probably the smart thing to do so they won't continue falsely hoping that they are going to be paid.

Have you checked with whatever branch of service your son served with to find out for sure whether there are any modest death benefits or life insurance policies he may have had with them? I'm almost certain that they would have required him to make a will and take out a life insurance policy at the time he entered service and perhaps you can find out who he named as beneficiary.

I have only very briefly gone over his papers. I saw a discharge related document that led me to believe that he declined the option to continue his life insurance (at his own expense) when he left the Army. There may be other benefits, but I won't be sure until I have had an opportunity to conduct a more detailed examination of his papers.

A quicker way to find out would be to call the Army and they can connect you to the proper office that has his records.

Good suggestion. Thanks. One other question; will the fact that I gave the furniture to SA and the computer to the landlord cause amy problems?

steve9191 said:

Good suggestion. Thanks. One other question; will the fact that I gave the furniture to SA and the computer to the landlord cause amy problems?

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Doubtful. I would not even mention them. And, if any of the creditors give you any trouble, tell them that you personally paid for the funeral and that you would have a superior claim against the estate anyway.

My condolences on your loss.

anteater said:

Doubtful. I would not even mention them. And, if any of the creditors give you any trouble, tell them that you personally paid for the funeral and that you would have a superior claim against the estate anyway.

My condolences on your loss.

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Greatly appreciate your condolences and your advice. Thanks again.