Just found out estranged brother passed away. How do I take care of his estate?

Submitted by turtleneck360 t3_10q4xtd in personalfinance

He passed 2 months ago and we just found out today. He was estranged to the entire family so no one knew what he was up to. As far as we know:

  1. Unmarried with no kids.

  2. At one point he was in and out of the hospital.

  3. Likely held no job and was on government disability.

  4. Lived with a roommate.

It's very unlikely he has a lot of assets. He may have held onto a lot of family-related documents so I would like to have those back. If he left no will, I'd like to take whatever he had in his estate and donate it to the organization he volunteered at. What steps do I need to take in order to go about doing this?

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meamemg t1_j6nul8l wrote

If you want to inherit his estate, you'd need to file with the local court wherever he lived. If he had no will and one or more of his parents are still alive, they would likely inherit anything he had first. You'd be next if both his parents are deceased (it depends on the state, but this would be true in most/all states).

Any assets with value that he has would first need to go to paying off any debts he had. Given that he was in and out of the hospital, there is a good chance of a decent medical debt, so it is likely there would be no assets to inherit and donate.

Many lawyers will do a free initial consultation on cases like this.

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turtleneck360 OP t1_j6nwba8 wrote

Unfortunately, my parents both passed. Only his estranged siblings are alive. I am not the oldest, but the youngest. Does this have any bearing on who would inherit his estate?

I think he's been on government disability for the past decade as he's been unable to work but still managed to survive. Doesn't this coupled with him being 67 years old meant he had government assistance? So medical debt may not be an issue.

Honestly, I doubt he had much assets to pay someone to pursue. I just figured if I can donate whatever he has, it's at least one last thing I can do for him to get him some good karma.

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meamemg t1_j6nwygg wrote

A free consultation could at least point you in the right direction.

The laws on this are going to vary from state to state. A post at r/legaladvice might get some help.

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kepler1 t1_j6nuof3 wrote

Are you the executor of his estate?

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turtleneck360 OP t1_j6nv8g8 wrote

Nope. I doubt my brother officially announced anyone as an executor to his estate. He may or may not have left a will. All I know is he lived with a roommate. I don't know who it is or even where he lived. His next of kin is probably just his estranged siblings. Currently, handling his business defaults to me since I was the one who picked up the call from the investigator searching for his family.

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1955photo t1_j6nwdc2 wrote

Someone will have to file with probate court in his county of residence, to be appointed administrator of the estate. Then that person is responsible for paying any bills out of the assets of the estate, if there are any. The rest of the estate has to be disbursed according to the laws of the estate where he lived.

Now in reality, if he has basically no money, his roommate will probably give his stuff to whoever shows up.

You can call the investigator and get the address, or maybe contact info for someone local.

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turtleneck360 OP t1_j6nx4m9 wrote

To be clear, if I file as an appointed administrator of his estate, I simply have to take care of his debt via his estate right? I'm not inheriting any personally liability for any of his debt?

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1955photo t1_j6o1rpx wrote

This is correct. Just be very careful with any collection agency what is going on. They are crooks

You will need a bunch of death certificates, at least 5 or 6.

You have to file for probate, and the court appoints an administrator.

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WoodsFinder t1_j6nvz8e wrote

It's always sad when someone is estranged from family like that. My condolences to you.

You could check the laws in the place where he last lived. Maybe you could get a court to appoint you as personal representative for his estate.

However, if it has been 2 months and his roommate knew he had no contact with family, my guess is that whatever belongings he had have probably already been given away or thrown away since the roommate probably needed to find a new roommate quickly and would have needed to clear out your brother's stuff.

I'd probably start by contacting the roommate to see whether there is any reason for you to do anything more.

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turtleneck360 OP t1_j6nwqbj wrote

Yeah the roommate likely took anything of value or tossed it out. I would contact the roommate but I don't know how. I don't know who he is or where he lived before his passing. My brother was a hoarder and a long time ago, was known to have kept a storage locker. So that is something else that I don't know how to go about checking.

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Jake_NoMistake t1_j6o0i7a wrote

If the town isn't that big, you could do it the old fashioned way and just cold call all of the storage unit places in the area to ask if they have a customer with his name. If they do, you could most likely explain the situation to them and let them know you'll pay the back pay if they will hold the unit while you become executor of the estate at the county courthouse.

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turtleneck360 OP t1_j6o2udx wrote

Unfortunately, I don't live in a small town. It'll be impossible to cold call all of the storages. The problem is compounded by him having lived in two adjacent cities, both fairly large.

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nostratic t1_j6pgeqc wrote

>If he left no will, I'd like to take whatever he had in his estate and donate it to the organization he volunteered at.

condolences on you brother but that's not how it works. even if there is a will, debts get paid before inheritances. without a will, debts are paid first then assets are distributed among relatives as the law dictates. you could donate your share of an inheritance to an organization, but you'd have zero authority to do so with all the remaining assets .

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