"Annuity", "Probate", and other foriegn words.

[MrRezister]

The past few months have not been great. At the end of October my grandmother died, and then a few days after Thanksgiving, my father passed away as well. My aunt revealed to me that my father had been left a small annuity by his mother, but he had not submitted it since he was so sick that he probably would never have seen any of it.

So, apparently the annuity should pass on to me and my brother.

I called the company that holds the money yesterday, and I was informed that I would have to have an estate set up for my father and go into probate. I have no idea what that means. Do I need a lawyer? Does this process take months and cost thousands of dollars? I believe my father still owed some child support (for the aforementioned brother) to the state - will this be taken out of the annuity?

I need some of the money just to pay for my dad's funeral, but if it's all going to be eaten up by the government and lawyers, then I'd just as soon not **** with it at all.

My problem right now is that I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I don't even know the correct questions to ask to find out how to learn what to do. I'm not soliciting legal advice, just some general hints on what I should do at this point. Thanks!


Please keep one's language relatively obscene free. Thanks! - cosine

[cosine]

Sorry to hear about your recent familial losses over the last several months. I don't have anything to contribute on the topic, but wanted to wish you my condolences.

[charby]

Sorry to hear about your loss, but this may help you find your answers

http://courts.state.ar.us/index.cfm

[vaskidmark]

Condolencences on your losses.

Until you know exactly what you are dealing with, you are going to be floundering - and could cause financial losses to mount inadvertantly.  All that follows is preceded with IANAL.

Did your father have any life insurance?  You can get proceeds from there that can go to the funeral expenses.  It may take a ransacking of his papers to locate a policy, which may mean turning everything upside down & inside out if he did not have anything resembling a filing system.  I'm going to presume you can get access to his possessions without a court order, but that may not in fact be the case.  If nobody stops you from trying, you are probably OK to do so.

Did your father die intestate - without a will?  If so, his estate needs to go through probate, which in very general terms means having the court check to see who legally is owed money from debts and how much, who inherits (and in what proportion), and how much tax the gooberment gets.

If there is no known will, then get yourself a probate attorney.  Talk to his bank (if you know where he had accounts) for recommendations - the trust department is a good place within the bank.

If there is a will, the services of a CPA may be all you need (if that much).

If you have questions that are so general that you do not know what questions to ask besides "What do I do?" then hire a family law attorney that your bank (or your dad's bank) recommends - again, the trust department can be very helpful.

PM El Tejon - he's a tilecrawler of the first water and probably knows somebody who knows somebody close to where you live.

It's not too late, but you do need to get going on all this.

stay safe.

skidmark

PS - Charby probably wanted to point you to http://courts.state.ar.us/aoc/forms.cfm#PROBATE .  Good luck & do not tear your hair out because you are confused.   Find the lawyer referral service in your local phone book & get some free advice via an appointment they set up with a probate lawyer.

[BridgeRunner]

I have some good general info and resources.  If you want, pm me and when I'm well enough to sit up at the real comp, I'll post it. Can't type that much with this dinky ipod.

[HankB]

Condolences on your losses.

Inheritance laws vary a bit from state to state.

IANAL, so I suggest you gather up all the info you can, and make an appointment with a family law attorney as was already suggested. In one hour he can probably answer all your questions, and it shouldn't cost an enormous amount.

It would help if you knew the value of the annuity - if it's really tiny and is likely to get eaten up by other claims, then there's no sense in messing with it yourself unless there's more to your Dad's estate than that . . . including bank accounts, insurance policies, and the like. ("Hard" assets like coin collections, firearms, cash, etc., are much more portable, and usually are not going to be brought to .gov's attention unless the next-of-kin start squabbling.)

[Scout26]

While it's a hard subject to bring up, the best thing to do is a some point sit down with your parents and go over the only thing that will happen to everyone (and also some other situations that may happen - long term care, mental or phyiscal disability, etc.)  Find out exactly what arrangements they want and who gets what.  Do this will all siblings/interested parties present.  A will, living will and other documents are important.  Put said documents in a place where everyone can get them.

When my step F-I-L died unexpectedly in his mid-50's it was a week of mad scrambling followed by three months of pretty much the equalivant of having your ID stolen.

We've done it with my parents and there won't be any guessing as to who does what and how things are to be done once the inevitable happens.   

Oh, and a good idea to do it for yourself and your SO, espeically if you have kids. 

[El Tejon]

1.  Collect all papers (insurance, will, annuity info) that you have and set up a file.

2.  Call and get an hour scheduled with an attorney that does a lot, if not only, probate.  Schedule an hour and bring what you have.

His answers will depend on the size of the estate and the terms of the will/trust.

My condolences for your loss.  I am certain you are operating in a fog; I'd get some outside help to ensure that you navigate this properly.

[crt360]

I, too, am sorry to hear about the passing of your grandmother and father.

If he lived in, owned property in, or passed away in Texas, you can PM me.  If it was Arkansas, do as El T recommends.  Probate law can be significantly different from state to state, and often has complex common law nuances that even familiar attorneys will debate (not to mention confusing code provisions).  Even in the same state, counties and judges will vary in process and what they require, so it would be most helpful to find a good probate lawyer in the county where your father resided.  For no more than a few hundred bucks, a good probate lawyer can give you a pretty complete overview of your options, the likely results, and a pretty close estimate of what it will cost you.  Some stupid ones (like me in the past), might give you all of this advice for free with the hope that you will hire them to do the work. 

Hank makes a good point about knowing the value of the estate.  Try to find out the value of the annuity.  If it's truly small, and the only estate asset, it might not be worth your time.  It's also possibly going to be important whether the annuity pays to your father's estate or directly to you and your brother as contingent beneficiaries.  Was there any other property (home, mobile home, land, auto, plane, boat & motor, motorcycle, jet ski, tractor, horse trailer, bank accounts, safe deposit box contents, stocks, etc.)?  Earlier in my practice, I worked hard to help people collect as little as a few hundred dollars in estate property and charged almost nothing for it.  I very rarely do that anymore.

[MrRezister]

Thanks for the advice everyone, it is a great help.  As far as I know, the sum in question is around $18k.  I think some of that will end up going to the state, as dad owed some child support.  I'm not sure if medical bills will come into factor or not, he was on Medicaid, and I don't know how all that works.  It sounds like I have to go through the whole probate process and see what happens.  Thanks!

[ilbob]

Pay a local lawyer a couple hundred bucks for an hour of his time so he can look at your situation and give you some sound advice.

Pick one who does a lot of this kind of work though.

Sometimes these things can be very simple, other times they can be unusually convoluted.

The terms of the annuity may determine just how it gets paid out, rather than having it go to the estate. Usually life insurance is not part of the estate either.