Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Washington

Re: Bank account of deceased mother

First, please accept my condolences on your recent loss.

If your Mother died without a will, the law considers her intestate. There is a statutory plan that says where her estate goes in the absence of a will.

If your mother had less than $60K in assets and no real property, there is a simplified probate for that situation.

What you need are called "letters of administration". That tells third parties that you are closing up your mother's estate and have the authority to do so from the court.

Those letters will give you the authority to close her accounts, and pay her creditors.

In no event are you personally responsible for her debt.

The creditors will either get paid or they will not. It depends on whether there is enough money in her estate for her administrator to pay them off. But you can't open an estate account until you have opened a probate (and gotten an EIN from the IRS).

If the estate is not solvent, you are going to need direction from the court.

Bank accounts are not generally considered estate assets. It depends on how the account was set up. If you are a signer on the bank account, the money is now yours and you do not have to hand it over to your mother's creditors.

The persons who want payment for her services know that they will have to wait until this is sorted out. It will take a little time.

If money is an issue for you, call the County Bar Association in the County where your mother was domiciled at the time of her death and ask for a referral to an attorney who can help you and who won't charge you some outrageous fee. They are out there, I promise.

The only creditor that really has to be paid is the State, and that would only be the case if she was receiving DSHS services at the time of her death (expenses of her last illness). They will put a lien on her estate.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell

Re: Bank account of deceased mother

A good starting point for you will be to go to www.washingtonlawhelp.org. Click on the Elder Law button.

The simplified estate process in Washington has a nominal fee. Check with your local court clerk office for the amount of the "small estate" fee. In my county it is twenty dollars. I'm thinking that is uniform in all counties, but I'm not sure.

By Statute there is an order of priority for payments from an "insolvent" estate, meaning there are more bills than assets. Credit Card balances are not high priority items, but funeral expenses are. As Ms. Powell indicated there are special procedures for insolvent estates and I refer you back to the materials on the washingtonlawhelp site.

Good luck,

Theresa