So after two years and two days, Stan closed the Jo Ann’s Estate bank account yesterday. (He was made the Personal Rep on July 26th,2012 so that’s the formal opening of the estate, but you get the picture.) This last six months have been quiet, but I’ve tried to stay on things, so this didn’t go on and on. The official language is “personal representative has fully administered this estate by making payment, settlement, or other disposition of: all lawful claims; expenses of administration; Federal and state estate taxes; inheritance taxes and other death taxes; and decedents estate federal and state income taxes. The assets of the estate have been distributed to the persons entitled to receive such assets in the amount and the manner in which they are entitled.” This sounds like an awful lot of work and it was.
In the spring, we had the final taxes done and then we started the dispersal of the remaining funds. I had to keep on the tail of the paralegal to finish the paperwork, which was a tad annoying, but we did get things done including the final accounting of things and money that had to be submitted to the court.
Annoyingly enough, when Stan wanted to close the estate account (and an old account of his with $36 in it), Wells Fargo wanted $10 per account to issue a check instead of cash. So it’s my money, but unless I want to carry around a wad of cash when I close my account, I give you $10. Wow, I can’t tell you how much I hate Wells Fargo. We kept Jo Ann’s Estate account with them because we though it would be easier (and they have a branch fairly close to us), but I’m not sure I’d do that again. (We did have some good help from one of their Customer Service Reps on a number off occasions, but their general procedures and rules are bad.)
If I had the chance to do it all again I would have made a few different choices, but not too many. We didn’t buy too many death certificates, although we have more leftover then I would’ve preferred. I’m still calling catalogue companies to get Jo Ann’s name off their list, something I have a feeling I may be doing for the rest of my life. In the final accounting we were somehow short about $24, which according to the paralegal isn’t very much at all so I feel pretty good about our accounting (not that I wouldn’t like it to be zero).
I can’t say that I look forward to ever having to do this again, but I’m glad that I have the knowledge I have. I never realized how involved even a small estate can be to handle and distribute under the laws as they exist today. I have realized how much more difficult this would have been had JoAnn not had all of her paperwork finished before she died, and that reminds me it’s time for us to make an appointment with the lawyer to start our paperwork. That might be the best lesson anyone could learn from this whole experience.
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Mary, about the catalogues. Log into http://www.dmachoice.org (Direct Marketing Assoc) and you can cancel them all at once. I had to do that in November of last year when my Mom went into an assisted living situation and was ordering JUNK from about 100 catalogues we found around her apt. I spent hours a week calling each one. The on the donation requests that kept sending return address labels that she would always send a check to, I opened them and wrote deceased and mailed them back intheir self addressed enveloped. Seems to have done the trick. Good luck, Faith
Wow Faith, that would have been useful. We do’t get many any more, but every once and a while… I’ll add it to my list of things to do when someone dies, too. I’m sure other could use that link.