My Mom's Estate

[cgreen7]

My mom passed away in August, 2000. She left a will and named an executor. The problem is the bills that we , her children and her estate, are left to pay. We know that we are responsible for some of the bills, but are her credit cards considered to be payable by us? Can a credit card company sue us so soon after her death? What about her medical expenses? She died of pancreatic cancer at age 73 and had used her credit cards mostly to pay for her costly prescriptions. She was also on Medicare but we have received numerous bills since her death and they are quite high. My mother owned her own home but had little else to her name. Her children (6 daughters and 1 son) have tried to handle her finances but we wondered what bils we were liable for and what ones (hopefully) we are not liable for? Although we loved our mother dearly, we don't have thousands of dollars to pay off her debts or we would have. We want to keep her house because it is the family home, but if the bills keep mounting, we won't be able to afford to do so. We may have to sell it to pay off her debts. I could sure use some information on this. We live in Baltimore, Maryland.

Thanks!!

[Edited by cgreen7 on 11-16-2000 at 09:59 AM]

 

[ALawyer]

I am sorry for your loss and know how terrible a disease it is.

If your mother had credit life insurance which many of the credit cards offer, the outstanding credit card balances may be covered. Check out the bills carefully and see if they were charging you for the insurance and if so demand payment. (Many policies stop at age 70.)

As far as the bills, she was responsible for them - not you kids (unless you signed for them) -- and the assets that she owned at death must be used to pay them off.

If all she had was the house, you may have to take out a mortgage on it, or sell it to pay the bills.

I might ask you "why keep it" as you can't all share it and holding on to it can create its own set of problems. But that is your choice.

You really should consult a probate lawyer in the area in which she lived and let the lawyer handle and wrap up the estate -- including holding the creditors at bay -- in a way that meets all of your needs. And the reason the creditors push so hard is that they have a short time to file claims or sue, and they do not want to miss out on what ios owed to them.