Jagamondi Posted September 28, 2015 Report Posted September 28, 2015 It will be necessary to determine whether or not there is a will. If there's a will, the executor will be named in the will. In lay-person English, their job is to administer the process by which assets are transferred, including paying the deceased's debts, filing their income-tax returns, and distributing any remaining assets according to the terms of the will. If there's no will, the remaining assets pass to the decedent's heirs according to the state of law. The executor is appointed by the court. The executor or closest family member will need many copies of the death certificate. It's important to get multiple copies of the death certificate. They will be necessary when notifying financial institutions, government agencies, insurance agencies, and others about the death. The deceased's debts will — usually — not be passed on to family members. The deceased's estate is liable for debts, but the deceased's family is usually not.The exception to this is when debts are in joint names/cosigned, in which case the survivor party will be responsible for the debt. Someone will need to contact Social Security and other government agencies, alerting them of the death. "This step is typically completed by the executor of the decedent's estate. The executor should contact the Social Security administration to let it know to discontinue Social Security payments." "If the Social Security Administration is not notified, the decedent's estate will owe the money back." After that, every other group and company that the deceased was associated with will need to be contacted. An executor will need to get in touch with banks, savings providers, mortgage providers, credit-card companies, and insurance companies to notify them of the death. Federal student loans will be discharged after death, but private ones will not. According to the US Department of Education, if a student-loan borrower dies, then that person's federal student loans will be discharged. Additionally, if a parent plus a loan borrower dies, then the loan may be discharged if the parent dies, or if the student on whose behalf the parent obtained the loan dies. The executor will have to file a final income tax return, and possibly an estate tax. "The executor will also have to file a final income-tax return for the decedent. On the income-tax return, the executor will indicate the decedent is deceased,". If an heir wishes to live in a home with mortgage debt, then they are responsible for making the payments. Otherwise, they can try and sell the house to pay off the existing loan. If a person who inherits a house with mortgage debt wishes to live in it, then they will be responsible for making mortgage payments. If the deceased rented, the lease agreement does not automatically terminate upon death. The most important thing to note here is that a lease agreement does not automatically terminate upon the death of a tenant. Month-to-month renting: "Generally, the official written notice of the tenant's death acts as a 30-day notice and signals the end of the lease. The estate is responsible for paying all rent owed to the landlord for 30 days after the written notice is delivered," according to Rent Prep. Auto loans fall under the 'estate planning' category — meaning that the executor will handle them. The executor will be in charge of paying of the deceased's debts — including car loans — from the proceeds of the estate. But if the estate does not have enough money to pay off the debts — and provided the deceased was the only one who borrowed the loan — then "the lender generally repossesses the vehicle and writes off the car loan as an uncollectible loss,". Someone will need to contact the local post office to stop or forward the incoming mail. Sometimes it's easy to forget the small, day-to-day things, but it is important that someone contacts the local post office to stop or forward any incoming mail. Creditors will have a claim against the deceased's estate. "When a person dies, that person's creditors have a claim against his or her estate. The executor pays all of the decedent's debts with his or her assets," Garber told Business Insider. "If the decedent's assets are insufficient to pay his or her debts, then those debts die with the decedent so long as somebody is not jointly liable on them." "In the case where a decedent's debts exceed his or her assets, state law sets forth an order of priority in paying off a decedent's debts," he added. The executor of the deceased's estate can reclaim any debts owed. A debt owed is an asset of the decedent's estate. The executor of the decedent's estate is in charge of collecting the debt. It is important to make sure that debt is papered so that the executor will have a way to learn about the debt," Garber told Business Insider. BONUS: There's also the question of what to do with emails and other online accounts. In some cases, a person agrees that no one else will be entitled to their online account — in which case the company will delete the account and its contents after death. But different companies have different rules. We've outlined a few: Gmail account: The deceased decides what to do with the account prior to death. A relevant party can submit a request regarding the deceased's account in order to close it, obtain data, resolve a potential hijacking, or simply notify Google that the user has died. iCloud account: When you sign up to iCloud, you agree that your account is "non-transferable" and that any rights to your Apple ID/content in the account terminate after death. The account may be terminated and all the content within it deleted upon the receipt of a copy of the death certificate. Facebook/Instagram account: The account can be "memorialized." It will say "remembering" next to the name, and no one will be able to log in to it. A person can delete their account prior to death. Twitter account: A person authorized to act on behalf of the estate or a verified immediate family member can work with Twitter to deactivate the account, and possibly delete certain images.
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