How to handle the finances upon the death of my father? Can I just move things on my own?

Submitted by beautifulcan t3_z9585c in personalfinance

As the title suggests, how is an estate handled upon a death and the family? My dad is close to the end, and has asked me to take care of everything for him. Am I allowed to just take care of everything myself, or is there a certain person that is allowed to take the steps? My dad has a basic will, but is basically just a 50/50 split of everything. There isn't anything specific in how things are split. And for the most part, any specific wishes are verbal between my dad and us. There is no like power of attorney, everything is in his name with no beneficiary set on his bank accounts (I think that's the term for it?)

A little background:
Absolutely 0 Debt, House completely paid off, 3 cars paid off. Income is just his SS/Military retirement which more than pays the bills with a decent amount of play $ left over every month. He has a small retirement fund (low 6 figures) but he doesn't even touch it since his retirement checks cover everything. Everything is going to be split 50/50 between me and my sister.

Also, I handle his finances for him. I make sure the bills are covered, etc. I am practically the one in charge of everything when it comes to his finances. Anything financial related, he just gives it to me. He gets a call, he just defers it to me. Helps in that he doesn't have to worry about being scammed, etc. I have access to all his accounts and I am pretty much the "caretaker" of his accounts/$. And at times, especially as of late, if anything comes up that needs to be taken care of that can be done online or over the phone, I pretty much take care of it at this point.

So in the event of his death, am I allowed to just move things around accordingly? I don't know the laws or process in handling this. I can just easily move any of the money from the accounts into me/sister accounts and close out the accounts (since the process can be done online). The car, is just a matter of selling and splitting. I have the car titles and house title. But do I have anything to worry about in doing so? It is only a matter between me and my sister.

I think the main thing is the house. Is there a process to transfer the house into our names?

Do I need a lawyer instead? My sister and I would like to avoid a lawyer just to save the money unless we absolutely need to. We already know how everything is to split.

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debbiewith2 t1_iyf36jg wrote

Who is named as Executor in the will? If you say your state and the approximate dollar amount, people may be able to help you see whether you need to do a full probate. But no, you can’t just move the money.

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beautifulcan OP t1_iyf3ozk wrote

Pretty sure I am. It's been awhile since I've seen it though. He got it done maybe a few years ago after some pestering from us for him to do it.

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debbiewith2 t1_iyf3vc6 wrote

Then you’ll want to research “probating a will” in your state and see if the directions are clear enough.

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LordPhartsalot t1_iyf67m3 wrote

I'm sorry for you and the family.

We're going through this right now, although we have done it once before.

The laws vary a lot between states, so you must be sure you are getting the correct information for the state that your dad resides in when he dies. Among other things, many states have a simplified form of probate or simplified estate rules for estates valued under a certain amount, and the amount also varies, and whether it includes the home varies.

So go ahead and start researching *for his state* what the procedures are there. And find and read the current version of any will.

You probably should have had power of attorney before now, but any power of attorney does not continue after death anyway. (Don't worry, if you are the executor you will have the power to settle the estate, pay bills, collect amounts owing, sell the house, etc.)

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ellieappa t1_iyf6u9e wrote

I would hire an estate lawyer / planning service but if you want to get some more info, search for Estate Planning in YouTube. America's Estate Planning Lawyers will be top choice and I watched quite a bit of his material. He covers a lot of material you need to research and work through that can't possibly be covered in this comment section.

Generally, it's not recommended to move parent's house under kids' name(s) until after death due to capital gains treatment differences when you sell the house if you received it after the death vs you as the owner. Also, other benefits your dad may be receiving can be impacted.

Definitely worthwhile to start going through all his financial accounts and help him set beneficiary ( or TOD - transfer on death/POD payable on death ) on all of them if allowed to you and your sister. I think it's easier not going to probate for checking/savings type of accounts so it maybe worthwhile to setup a joint account between you and your sister and move funds out. Retirement accounts should just have beneficiaries set and it should be a fairly easy process once you have the death certificate to get distribution without going through probate.

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FckMitch t1_iyf7q4m wrote

I think he can just set TOD beneficiaries as 50/50 sister and him without setting up joint accounts. At death Bank will pay out 50% to him and 50% to sister.

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ellieappa t1_iyf92ch wrote

That's cleaner option and just work through distribution after death. There are banks, however, that won't let you set TOD ( I have one like that) or not allow multiple people on TODs. If there isn't accessible fund set aside to cover funeral and other expenses it makes it difficult to access those accounts legally in a timely manner unless he or his sister is on that account as well.

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Gwsb1 t1_iyf80cq wrote

No. You can't do any of that. Hire a lawyer. The sooner the better.

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