Question about deceased mothers assets and bills

[docmartin]

Hello,

My mother passed this past June and I would like to know what steps are required to settle her accounts.

She was in a nursing home for a year prior and as far as I know there was not a financial POA appointed. I did have POA for her health care. There is no will but there are also no assets. Just some medical bills and a bank account with aprox. $1400 in it. The nursing home is of no help as they don't have any answers. They just forward all her mail to me and that's it.

Basically I would like to know what to tell any creditors who send bills and what it takes to close her bank account. I would rather not hire a lawyer as her funeral was costly and took up any extra money I had.

Do I need financial POA to do any of this? Can that be obtained after death? I am competent enough to file my own motions, but what exactly am I filing?

Thanks in advance

 

[dee_dub]

You'll want to have yourself named as executor of her estate. You can apply to the court for that. Once named, you can settle the estate. If the bank account was solely in her name, it forms part of her estate, and you can pay the creditors out of it. (If it was jointly held, it passes to the other account holder, and the creditors do not get paid from it.) If there is anything left after the bills are paid, it would pass to you and any siblings you might have. If there isn't enough, notify the remaining creditors and send them a copy of her death certificate.

Sorry for your loss. Good luck to you.