I am wondering how to go about this. My oldest DD asked for my help to try to find out, since everything is closed right now and we can't make any phone calls I thought maybe someone on here might know. Anyway, her father died about a year and a half ago, he had a stroke and was in a car accident, she received his life insurance policy, actually a couple of them, disposed of all his things paid all his bills etc. There was no need to bo through probate as he owned no property, just his furnishings, which she took what she wanted and donated the rest, he was single and had no other kids, lived in an apartment, his vehicle was totalled in the accident. Anyway, today she gets a call from one of the insurance companies (a different company an accident policy) that they are sending her check for over $5000, but that it is going to be made out to the estate of ****** . Well she won't be able to cash it The insurance company already told her that they can't make it out to her personally because it is over $5000. She says she would have to hire an attorney if she has to go through probate asnd it would take a long time and cost more than $5000. Does anyone know anything about this? About the process of what you have to do? How to go about cashing the check? I don't have any experience in this, even though both my parents have died, we transfered everything into my name/joint prior to them passing away and we never had to go through probate of anything. Any info would help. She could really use the $5000.

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I would really question the insurance company to verify if he didn't have a beneficiary listed. Otherwise, it seems payable to the estate is correct.

Your actual answer will depend on the state she lives in and thus I will speak generally. She can start by calling (or online if available) her local courthouse to see if she can do paperwork on her own allowing the cashing of the check without opening an estate. It may take a little digging, but she should be able to get an answer. If opening an estate is required, it's not that hard, except there are typically requirements such as public notice, getting an EIN number from the IRS, filing an estate tax return, providing an inventory to the court.

A reputable attorney's fees for an hour or so consultation shouldn't be but a couple of hundred dollars.

dl

If the insurance company is making it out to The Estate of . . . it's probably because he never named a beneficiary, but I'd start by checking that. If there's a beneficiary, the check should be paid directly to him or her and is NOT part of the estate, so no probate worries. (The rest of my answer is based on Virginia law, since I don't know where your DD lives, but I expect the general prinicples will apply.) However, if he didn't, she should call the clerk's office in the jurisdiction in which he lived and make an appt. to qualify as his administrator (if no will) or executor (if a will). She will likely have to file an accounting of his assets, but it sounds like that shouldn't be too hard. Then she can take that certificate of qualification and deposit the check.

I can't imagine why she'd need a lawyer for any of this.

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Reading is Fundamental.

There was a will, he left everything to her. She was the executer of the will, but all she had to do was pay bills, file a tax return and take care of personal belongings, since there was no property. She lives here in Oklahoma

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If she's already qualified as executor of the will, she should have no trouble with the check.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Then she did go through probate if she was named as executrix ! As long as she kept her letters or whatever documentation she got from the OK court, she can cash the check.

dl

Well, she never had to actually go through court because there was nothing to go through court for. Any life insurance checks came in her name directly to her. His bank accounts already had her name on them, so no problem there. So she never went to court.

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Ok, then she never was the exectrix, as validated by a court. I don't see how she could have filed a tax return without him signing, or her having been named, but ............

I will suggest she call the insurance company and explain there is no estate, was no estate and won't be an estate. State his legal marital status, and that she is his only surviving child and thus legal next of kin, and thus entitled to the funds. It could be possible the insurance company has a provision of this type. Otherwise, she is going to have to go to court .

dl

She was named the executer in the will. But they never had to go to court. She was able to file a tax return without going to court, somehow, not sure how, now that you mention it, but she is paying the taxes on a payment plan (she could use this money to pay off the taxes if she could cash the check) and she did take it to an accountant so that she made sure everything was done right with the taxes. She is going to call the insurance company back in the morning and ask more questions.

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If she was named executor, but didn't go to the clerk's office to qualify, in the places I'm familiar with, she's not the executor yet. She has to qualify with the clerk's office, which is usually a five or ten minute procedure. I'm not sure when you say "go to court" if you mean the building itself or it you're talking about an actual procedure in a courtroom. Probate is really just a bunch of paperwork that's done through the clerk's office.

As a practical matter, though, if she's the only beneficiary and there's no one to challenge her, she's probably fine just going along the way she is if she can get the insurance company to change the payee on the check. The first step, IMO, is to check if he named a beneficiary. Sounds like he didn't but, if he did, that would avoid this entire problem. Remember, life insurance, if paid directly to a beneficiary and not made part of the estate, doesn't go through the estate and no taxes would be due on it from the estate.

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Reading is Fundamental.

She will call as soon as things open, here, nothing is open yet. She was the benificiary on the life insurance policy so there wasn't a problem with that, they took taxes out of that before they gave it to her. The taxes she is paying on a monthly basis are his personal taxes that she filed after his death, unfortuantely she didn't know she was supposed to file his taxes and didn't find out until almost a year after his death (after she spent all the life insurance money). If she would have known she would have paid that instead of paying some of her own bills and all his bills, but she didn't know, so now she's paying them out on a payment plan.

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My dad died, and had no estate. I cashed checks in his name at our bank with a copy of his death certificate, signing as "deceased, daughter"....
Take the check to the bank with your documentation and speak to someone, they may help you out (my checks were for very litte, a few hundred....
I had to file a tax return for my dad, and I signed it deceased