Mother Passed, No Will, Out of State

[RSiemasz]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Deceased mother lived in MI, I live in TN

My mother passed away recently, I am her only child. My father, her husband, passed in 1995.
I now live in TN and want to make sure that I have the proper things taken care of on my end before going to MI, which I am planning to do later this week.

1. What do I need to have to legally enter the home? She owned her home and lived there alone. Has an equity line up to date.
2. Where do I begin to stop bills, how do I take care of the equity line, bank accounts etc?
3. My father had a life insurance policy as well as a dependent policy through his work. How do I stop payments to my mother and how would I find out if they should then come to me?
4. Any ideas of where I could search for what other assets and or bills she may have had?
5. I do not believe that she had a will, none has been filed. What happens to initiate probate proceedings?

 

[justalayman]

Here's a page of forms applicable to probate court:


http://courts.mi.gov/administration/scao/forms/pages/probate-court-index.aspx

1. What do I need to have to legally enter the home? She owned her home and lived there alone. Has an equity line up to date.

with authority, you would have to be named personal representative. Unless you start carting out things, I doubt too many people are going to take issue with a son entering his mother's home.

2. Where do I begin to stop bills, how do I take care of the equity line, bank accounts etc?

what bills are you wanting to stop? the equity line will be dealt with through the probate process as will the bank accounts. You might want to give notice to any banks holding accounts so they can freeze them.

3. My father had a life insurance policy as well as a dependent policy through his work. How do I stop payments to my mother and how would I find out if they should then come to me?

You will have to find the servicer of that policy and ask them.

4. Any ideas of where I could search for what other assets and or bills she may have had?

start with the home. That can take you to banks she did business with. A check book register is a good place to find who she had been making any regular payments to

5. I do not believe that she had a will, none has been filed. What happens to initiate probate proceedings?

see the list of forms above.