Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Washington

Re: Letter of Testamentory

The bank is partially right, but that is not the whole of the situation. Letters Testamentary are issued when there is a will. If there is no will the clerk issues Letters of Administration. Depending on what you think you need to do, you may want to file the Will and request Letters. There is a fee for filing a Will or Probating an Estate and for issuing of Letters. So you may be spending more than the estate is worth If, however, the estate is clearly insolvent you may simply want to tell the credit card company that your sister is dead (include a copy of the death certificate) and that the estate is insolvent. The creditor may have a claim against the value of the deceased's personal property, so may have a claim against some or all of the money in the bank account and the proceeds of the garage sale.