Will banks honor checks presented after death?

[SFkid]

CALIFORNIA

My mother-in-law's estate will go through probate and we have sent pre-signed checks to her mortgage, property taxes, and various things. There was poor planning on her part and she has hours or maybe days at most to live. She will not be lucid again. We are trying to pay all of her bills from her checking account and we are wondering at what point her accounts/assets will be frozen. We DO NOT have financial Power of Attorney. Will the bank honor a check if received after her demise, assuming they are aware of it? Can we pay her final expenses with her own check? My wife is sole beneficiary of an uncontested will (she is also named executor). Can my wife write a check to herself? We still have a small number of checks. Will it bounce (depending on timing)? It's Sunday, so we cant really ask a bank.

Thank you very much, there are many more questions, but we need to know what we can and can't do.

 

[SFkid]

Let me clarify - we don't really know what will happen to here estate, but it's basically a house in Marin County, Ca. that is heavily mortgaged and she will leave consumer credit debt and business bills behind. We assume the house will be seized and sold, etc. We want to use HER money (thers is 15-20k in checking) to pay down as much as we can...we are a struggling SF 3 kid renter family ourselves and cannot really help her situation financially.

Thanks again!

 

[BoredAtty]

The bank has the authority to pay the checks until it (1) knows of her death and (2) has a reasonable time to act on such knowledge. Even with such knowledge, however, the bank may continue to pay her checks for 10 days after the date of death unless a person claiming an interest in the account orders that payment be stopped.

 

[justalayman]

kind of lost me there BA.

Does not a bank have the responsibility to honor a check written prior to the death of the account holder?? at what point must the recipient of a check file a claim against the estate to seek payment for such a check rather than present the check for processing?

We DO NOT have financial Power of Attorney.that pretty much does not allow you to do anything with moms money either before of after her death.

Will the bank honor a check if received after her demise, assuming they are aware of it?

Can we pay her final expenses with her own check?

Only is written prior to the death of the writer so since mom has not written such a check, no

My wife is sole beneficiary of an uncontested will (she is also named executor).

as the executor (by the way, she is only executor AFTER probate has been filed and the court has assigned her executor. Mom can only elect her to be executor) she is responsible for paying whatever the estate must pay using estate funds. She would need to establish an account in the name of the estate of mom if/when she becomes executrix.

Can my wife write a check to herself?

She can write a check as executrix to herself as wife IF she is legally deserving of the money per probate and it should only be from an account for the estate of mom with with her as the only person allowed to issue checks BUT again, only if and when she is named executrix.

 

[BoredAtty]

justalayman,

The OP's mother-in-law is not yet dead, but will be shortly. Recently (again, while still alive), the OP's mother-in-law signed checks to pay recent bills. The OP wants to know if the checks will be honored by the bank if his mother-in-law dies before such checks are cashed.

The answer is found in California Commercial Code Section 4405. My prior post was a summary of the law. Here it is verbatim, if interested:

(a) A payor or collecting bank's authority to accept, pay, or
collect an item or to account for proceeds of its collection, if
otherwise effective, is not rendered ineffective by incompetence of a
customer of either bank existing at the time the item is issued or
its collection is undertaken if the bank does not know of an
adjudication of incompetence. Neither death nor incompetence of a
customer revokes the authority to accept, pay, collect, or account
until the bank knows of the fact of death or of an adjudication of
incompetence and has reasonable opportunity to act on it.

(b) Even with knowledge, a bank may, for 10 days after the date of
death, pay or certify checks drawn on or before that date unless
ordered to stop payment by a person claiming an interest in the
account.

 

[curb1]

The simple answer is to go ahead and pay the bills before death. The worst thing that would happen is a credit would be paid to the estate if too much was paid. Don't pay yourself money, that could cause you more problems than you now have.

 

[justalayman]

justalayman,

The OP's mother-in-law is not yet dead, but will be shortly. Recently (again, while still alive), the OP's mother-in-law signed checks to pay recent bills. The OP wants to know if the checks will be honored by the bank if his mother-in-law dies before such checks are cashed.

The answer is found in California Commercial Code Section 4405. My prior post was a summary of the law. Here it is verbatim, if interested:

(a) A payor or collecting bank's authority to accept, pay, or
collect an item or to account for proceeds of its collection, if
otherwise effective, is not rendered ineffective by incompetence of a
customer of either bank existing at the time the item is issued or
its collection is undertaken if the bank does not know of an
adjudication of incompetence. Neither death nor incompetence of a
customer revokes the authority to accept, pay, collect, or account
until the bank knows of the fact of death or of an adjudication of
incompetence and has reasonable opportunity to act on it.

(b) Even with knowledge, a bank may, for 10 days after the date of
death, pay or certify checks drawn on or before that date unless
ordered to stop payment by a person claiming an interest in the
account.

Thanks BA. Much appreciated.

And yes, I realize mom has not passed yet. I was just concerned with the "writing checks to herself" and the possibility of OP writing checks AFTER mom passed. Depending upon the totality of the situation, this could be a very big problem or a no problem depending when, why, and who else is involved with the estate (including creditors). Obviously writing checks post mortem would not be acceptable in any case, even if mom had signed them prior. A check cannot be issued post mortem, from moms account, even if OP had a POA prior to death.

 

[SFkid]

Thanks all -that's certainly food for thought. Although the estate will be left to my wife, we really don't expect to see anything from the sale of the house, etc. We just want to do right by certain creditors while she is still alive. She pre-signed checks to be used for whatever...my wife often wrote checks on her behalf...so what's the problem doing so now? My wife is home...maybe she can join in and, again THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[justalayman]

Thanks all -that's certainly food for thought. Although the estate will be left to my wife, we really don't expect to see anything from the sale of the house, etc. We just want to do right by certain creditors while she is still alive. She pre-signed checks to be used for whatever...my wife often wrote checks on her behalf...so what's the problem doing so now? My wife is home...maybe she can join in and, again THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Timing, I beleive, would be of greatest concern followed by the possibility of writing a cehck to herself.

Timing, obviouslly as I posted prior but writing a chck to herself could be looked at as improper and possibly illegal depending how how, why, and when it was done.

Just act with caution. The last thing you would want to do is get mixed up in some legal BS at a time like this (moms passing, or soon to be anyway) when you intended to do nothing illegal or improper.

 

[SFkid]

Timing, I beleive, would be of greatest concern followed by the possibility of writing a cehck to herself.

Timing, obviouslly as I posted prior but writing a chck to herself could be looked at as improper and possibly illegal depending how how, why, and when it was done.

Just act with caution. The last thing you would want to do is get mixed up in some legal BS at a time like this (moms passing, or soon to be anyway) when you intended to do nothing illegal or improper.

Word. Thank you all...it's moot now.

We just got the call, she's died. So who knows what will happen with the checks that are out**************people, pls plan for your final costs for your kids. Now we are faced with paying a mortuary and we have no money. I suppose I should start a new thread entitled 'What to do with the body? ....and her household possessions, and**************....damn this is a mess. We are taking tomorrow off to deal with the situation as best we can. This occurred at a Kaiser Permanente in Ca.. Thanks!!!!

 

[fairisfair]

Word. Thank you all...it's moot now.

We just got the call, she's died. So who knows what will happen with the checks that are out**************people, pls plan for your final costs for your kids. Now we are faced with paying a mortuary and we have no money. I suppose I should start a new thread entitled 'What to do with the body? ....and her household possessions, and**************....damn this is a mess. We are taking tomorrow off to deal with the situation as best we can. This occurred at a Kaiser Permanente in Ca.. Thanks!!!!

Gee, how incredibly rude of her death to be such an inconvenience to you.

 

[SFkid]

Gee, how incredibly rude of her death to be such an inconvenience to you.

We will let her slide this time.

While no doubt sounding a bit callous to some, just a reminder to handle your business if at all possible.

Thanks again for your help

Rest in Peace H

 

[curb1]

Why did you wait so long to handle this? Not unusual.