OK to change address of deceased brother to get his mail forwarded?

[sprocket454]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN

My brother died in Nevada a couple of weeks ago. No kids. Wife already deceased. Just my sister and I as family. Chances are he had almost no money. We went out and emptied as much as we could out of the house he rented. No personal property worth much of anything. No car. We are waiting on the death certificate. Apparently he disposed of his bills as soon as he paid them. No current or recent bills in his house; no bank statements. Not even in the trash. His checkbook shows the bills were paid. So we don't really know what was in his bank account. I'm certain he had no retirement accounts. According to his landlady, his rent was paid automatically and was always on time, but the payment that would have come out right after his death, bounced. So it looks like he may have been about broke.

So can I safely just have his mail forwarded to my address without having to become executor of his estate? I can fill out a change of address online but since I haven't been appointed as his representative, it appears to be technically illegal. But whose going to protest? We are his only next of kin. I just want to receive his next bank statement to see what he has in his account(s). If it's almost nothing then we will likely just leave it be. Our next step hinges on whether he had anything or not. And having his mail forwarded may give us that information. Can I get in trouble for doing it? Oh, and his death certificate will be here in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Dandy Don]

What you are discussing can result in felony charges if you have not been appointed legal executor or personal representative of his estate. You can write a letter to your local postmaster and see what the postmaster says--there might be an exception for a decedent in a special situation such as yours, which has certainly happened quite frequently in the past for other families of decedents.

If you know the identity of the bank through his checkbook, you should first write a letter to the Nevada bank to ask them how they would want to proceed. They will probably tell you that they can not give out information to anyone, or they might relent and sympathize with your situation and go ahead and give you the balance.

You can contact the county probate courthouse for whatever city he died in (or look up the information online) to see what court costs/filing fee would be to handle a simple, smaller estate (which will probably be less than $100.00). After you file, you would receive the official document called letters testamentary which you would then present a certified copy of to the bank and then they would be able to release the account information.

Are you sure that he has no other assets (pension benefits, etc.) that would be subject to opening up an estate?

 

[sprocket454]

Thank you Don, we will be in contact with his bank as soon as the death certificate arrives and see what they require. If it's only gonna be around $100 to get the required paperwork, they I will do that. I'm pretty sure this branch will require it.

I'm pretty certain he had no pension from anywhere. He was an odds maker (bookie) and although he did work for a couple of Vegas casinos years ago, all his recent income came from working for online casinos. I'm not sure how they paid him, but it was under the radar so to speak. I know for awhile he made a very good income but I think his recently deceased wife...well she had expensive hobbies. It's possible he still had a good chunk of change in the bank, but I find it odd then that his last rent payment bounced. Unless he always transferred money over when his bills were due. That last payment would have come out automatically a week after he died. We found no evidence they he had investments. No papers that would indicate that.

 

[LdiJ]

I disagree with the idea that there would be anything wrong with forwarding his address to your home. Someone has to deal with his mail and you will not be the first or the last person to do that...particularly since he rented rather than owned.