The Petrosewicz Law Firm Estate Planning Blog

How Does an Executor Obtain a Credit Report for Decedent?

Obtaining the credit report for a decedent is important to protect their assets before any criminals target them for identity theft and credit card fraud, advises credit.com in the article “Dealing with a Credit Report for the Deceased.” Speed is of the essence for this estate task.

In most cases, the only person who is the subject of the credit report should have access to it. However, there are times when you need to pull someone else’s report, such as when a loved one dies. Other instances are when an employer is checking on a potential employee’s credit, or when a landlord wants to know more about a tenant.

To obtain a living person’s credit report, you must have permission. Permission can be granted on a rental or job application. You’ll also need their Social Security number, name and date of birth.

For someone who has passed, it is recommended that you notify the three credit bureaus as soon as possible after a death to make sure the account is marked as “deceased,” so no one can open a credit card account in the person’s name.

If you are the executor and you need to obtain a credit report of a person who has passed, here’s what you will need to do to protect their legacy and obtain their credit report. First, you’ll need certain documents:

• Proof that you have been named executor of the estate
• Testamentary letters from the probate court
• An official copy of the death certificate

You should get several copies of each of these documents, since you will also need them for other aspects of the estate.

Before you can obtain the credit report, the will needs to be filed with the probate court. Your estate planning attorney can do this for you, as part of settling the estate. Once all the documents are in order, you’ll need to report the death and contact the three bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. You’ll also want a cover letter explaining that the person has passed and that you need the reports to settle the estate.

The letter should include the decedent’s name, their last known address and their Social Security number. There may be a fee, depending on the company’s policies.

Review the report thoroughly and check for any inaccuracies. Make note of any open accounts that need to be paid with the estate or notified of the death. Debts are not all cleared when a person dies, so you’ll want to know what needs to be taken care of. Look for anything suspicious. It could be a sign of theft or fraud.

The last step is to notify the credit bureaus, outstanding creditors and the Social Security Administration of the person’s death. Once proper notification has taken place, the bureaus will mark the credit record as being deceased. No further credit will be extended in the person’s name and no additional accounts can be opened.

The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your estate planning needs.  Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].  

Reference: credit.com (Aug. 27, 2019) “Dealing with a Credit Report for the Deceased.”

Why a Will Is Just the Start of Retirement Planning

Having access to the very best things in life, when your personal net worth is in excess of $5 million or $500 million, seems like a natural thing for such successful people. However, when high-profile celebrities, like Aretha or Prince, die without a will, we all get a front row seat to their inner financial lives.

Here’s another example: the actor James Gandolfini had a will, but never established a trust. When he died unexpectedly five years ago, his personal finances were an open book, says the Robb Report in the article “Rest in Wealth: The Ins and Outs of Estate Planning.”

We know that he left $200,000 to his assistant, $500,000 to his nieces and some of his friends were left $50,000, while others were left $200,000. He gave his son his clothing and jewelry, and his wife received the rest of his personal items.

That’s the sort of thing you probably wouldn’t want people to know, especially if you are a famous actor. If you were the recipient of any of those large gifts, and your name was public knowledge, you better believe that your phone will be buzzing with calls from people you haven’t even thought of in years.

Only 60% of Americans have a will. If you’ve got a collection of cars, an amazing wine cellar or a handful of expensive watches and no will, then the state is going to decide who will get what. It won’t matter what you wanted.

If you have minor children and no will, the court selects a guardian. The guardian doesn’t work for free. That money comes from your children’s inheritance. If, like Aretha, you have a special needs child, your inheritance could cause the child to lose any state-funded support, like Medicaid.

Even if you’re not a multi-million-dollar artist, you need a will.

 However, that’s just for starters. You also need a power of attorney and a health-care proxy. You may need a revocable trust. You may need a Special Needs Trust. There are many different tools available to protect you, protect your family, and transfer wealth efficiently (read: less taxes) across generations. It takes time to set up, and there are costs associated with having an estate plan created.

Once the plan is created, you have to tidy up the details too, like funding trusts, retitling assets, checking your named beneficiaries and other details.

Just consider the millions in taxes that Prince and Aretha’s heirs are going to pay.

Busy business owners need to decide whether they can make some free time to sit down with an estate planning attorney and create an estate plan. From a profit/loss perspective, it’s definitely worthwhile.

The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your estate planning and probate needs.  Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].  

Reference: Robb Report (Nov. 10, 2018) “Rest in Wealth: The Ins and Outs of Estate Planning”

For Snowbirds, Estate Planning Is Needed for More than One Nest

Leaving the cold behind is a wonderful journey for the many northerners who make the annual trip. However, they need to be aware of some unintended consequences to their estate plans. State laws govern the administration of estates and the rules in one state may not always be the same in another, according to an article from The Indiana Lawyer titled “Multi-jurisdictional estate planning requires research, collaboration.”

This multi-state thinking applies to anyone with property in more than one state—or countries. How then can they figure out how to administer their assets after death, if they are spread out across the country or around the globe?

The process sounds simple but it’s not. Their estate planning attorney needs to understand and advise them about the laws governing each of the jurisdictions where they have assets. It requires extensive research and may need the help of other attorneys working together. If the cost is a concern, understand that the cost of doing this after death will likely become far more complex and costlier.

The first step is to identify the assets and where they are located and then determine where the client maintains legal residence.

People often have property in a few states, as well as bank accounts in a few states. Tangible assets, such as real estate and intangible assets, such as bank accounts, are treated differently in estate planning law.

Tangible assets are typically governed by the law where the asset is owned, while intangibles are governed by the law of where the client resides. One way to simplify this process is to put all the assets into a revocable trust, which avoids probate and helps a client avoid multiple ancillary estates.

 However, estate attorneys will need to know the estate law of other locations to help their clients make the right decisions for their assets.

Many states have probate laws with similar general principles. However, the details are different. One example: a trust that was properly executed in Indiana was ineffective under Florida law, because of the lack of sufficient witness signatures. It was a small detail, but one that made all the difference.

The problem becomes even more complex, when the person has assets in foreign countries. In some countries, forced heirship will actually prohibit citizens from dictating where their assets go after death. In these countries, a certain percentage of a citizen’s assets must go to their children, spouse, etc., and some countries don’t recognize the concept of a trust, so creating a revocable trust to avoid ancillary estates won’t work.

The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your estate planning needs.  Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].  

Reference: The Indiana Lawyer (Oct. 17, 2018) “Multi-jurisdictional estate planning requires research, collaboration”

Celebrities Make Estate Planning Mistakes–In a Big Way

Outdated documents, beneficiary designations and other estate planning mistakes can keep your heirs tied up in court for years, with your estate consumed by taxes, penalties and legal fees. This is not to mention the frustrating scenario of people you didn’t want to receive your assets, ever, getting the lion’s share of your estate.

That, says Kiplinger in an article titled “6 Estate-Planning Mistakes Celebrities Made,” could happen to your family, if you don’t update your estate plan on a timely basis. Making sure that your assets and prized possessions end up with the right people requires more than just having a will created. Many accounts have designated beneficiaries, like IRAs and 401(k) accounts, and insurance policies. If the person designated to be a beneficiary is an ex-spouse or a family member from whom you’re estranged, then it won’t matter: the named beneficiaries supersede anything contained in your will.

Just as everything about celebrity lives is oversized, so are their estate planning mistakes.

With no will, Prince died intestate. A judge in Minnesota made the decisions about his assets and there were significant delays due to people who claimed to be his heirs. It has been two years since his death and heirs have yet to receive their inheritances.

Singer Barry White died in 2003, while he was separated but not divorced from his second wife. She inherited everything. His live-in girlfriend of several years and his nine children received nothing. The legal battle got ugly with his girlfriend, daughter and son all filing lawsuits. Until you are legally divorced, you are still married, as far as your estate is concerned. Update your will, your financial and healthcare power of attorney and check your beneficiary designations. Don’t wait.

When actor Heath Ledger died, his will left everything to his parents and three sisters. His daughter and her mother were left with nothing. His family later gave all the money from the estate to his daughter. Use life-changing events, like the birth of a child, as reasons to review and update your estate planning documents.

Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner died at age 38. It was believed that she had a will.  However, no one could find it. The legal battles between her husband and her mother went on for years. Most estate planning attorneys will keep a copy of your will and other estate planning documents on file. You should also keep the original documents in a safe, readily-accessible place and tell at least two people where they are located.

When acting legend Marlon Brando died, he left most of his approximately $26 million estate to his producer and other associates. A long-time housekeeper said that Brando had promised to give her his home when he died, but he never put it in writing. She sued the estate for the value of the home plus $2 million in damages. The case settled three years later for $125,000. If you are making promises to people that you wish to take care of, put those in writing.

Pop icon Michael Jackson’s death set off a long series of legal battles over his estimated $500 million estate. He had created a revocable living trust designed to pass his wealth to his children and his mother when he passed.  However, he never funded the trust. His entire estate had been left outside of the trust. That meant that it had to go through the probate process, while his children and mother lived on an $8 million annual allowance managed by the estate’s executor and a judge. There were also many legal challenges from creditors and family members.

Estates of celebrities and “regular” people can avoid all of these mistakes, by creating and updating their estate plans, with the help of a qualified estate planning attorney.

The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your estate planning needs.  Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].  

Reference: Kiplinger (Aug. 31, 2018) “6 Estate-Planning Mistakes Celebrities Made”

Why You Need an Estate Attorney

The government has many things it is very particular about.  However, you are not likely to notice one of those things very much. That is that property all needs to be traceable to a particular owner or owners.

This is important to the government for tax purposes. However, as you do not generally get all your property at one time, it is not always that noticeable. It is not a lot of paperwork for most individual pieces of property.

When someone passes away, things change. Then there is a lot of property that needs to change ownership and there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be done at once, as U.S. News & World Report discusses in "How to Deal With the Paperwork Scramble After a Spouse Dies."

It is easy to get overwhelmed and make costly mistakes when there is that much paperwork to fill out and file in such a short period of time. Those mistakes require even more paperwork and time to fix. People who are grieving and who do not know all the things that need to be done, make these mistakes all the time.

There is a good way to avoid most mistakes. Hire an estate attorney who can help with the process. The attorney knows what needs to be done and has staff to help with the paperwork.

The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your estate planning and probate needs.  Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].  

Reference: U.S. News & World Report (June 19, 2018) "How to Deal With the Paperwork Scramble After a Spouse Dies."

What to Do When You Cannot Find a Will

Many Americans pass away, without ever having created a will. Many others have created wills, but they do not tell their families about them.  As a result, the families cannot find those wills, when they are needed. These are very common occurrences that often give children, whose parents have passed away, a lot of headaches.

Fortunately, things do not have to be too difficult. There are a few steps people need to take if they find themselves in this situation, as Forbes discusses in "Your Parent Didn't Have a Will: What Should You Do Now?"

Those steps include:

• First check to see if your parent had a safety deposit box. Your parent might have created a will and put it in their safety deposit box. It is very common for people to leave their wills there. It can be difficult to gain access to these boxes, but it is possible.
• Search around the house for a will. Check any place your parent put any important financial or legal information. You might find a will stuffed away in some old file folder at the back of a drawer.
• While you are doing this, gather all of the information that you can find about your parent's finances. This information will help you later, so you might as well get it while you are searching for the will.
• Hire an estate attorney to help you. The attorney can assist with the probate process and make things much easier on you.

The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your estate planning and probate needs.  Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].  

Reference: Forbes (June 4, 2018) "Your Parent Didn't Have a Will: What Should You Do Now?"

Ashes Stolen in Transit

A thief in Arizona stole a package that contained the cremated remains of an Arizona woman's father rather than a Christmas present, according to Fox News in "Ashes of woman's father stolen from front porch of Arizona home, reward offered." The package was left there by a postal worker, even though a signature was required.

The postal service is investigating the incident and has offered a $10,000 reward for information. The woman would just like the ashes back, so she can take them to her brother in California.

If this unusual story has any sort of lesson, it might be that it is not a good idea to ship a loved one's ashes during the holiday season.

Reference: Fox News (Dec. 18, 2017) "Ashes of woman's father stolen from front porch of Arizona home, reward offered."