Probate and creditor claims on a small bank account

Frank: My mom just passed and we found out that her bank account is going to have to go into probate. Before she passed, she was in the hospital and there's quite a few bills there. Will the hospital be required to-- will we be required to use that money to pay for the hospital or them have rights to that?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Any idea how much money is in there, Frank?

Frank: About $11,000.

Tom: Okay. Frank, if we have to do a probate on that, we will be required to give notice to all known creditors, doctors, hospitals, credit cards, et cetera. They will be allowed to file a claim in that estate. As you might imagine, before you can hand out money to the kids, you must first pay all the valid claims. However, there is a list of priority as to who gets paid first. Frank, at the very top of that list is attorney's fees, court costs, and executor fees. Number two on that list is funeral expenses.

Frank, realistically, by the time you get done paying attorney's fees, court costs, executor fees, and funeral expenses, there's probably not going to be anything left over, Frank. That's the good and the bad news. The good news is the hospital is going to get-- not going to get paid. The bad news is that your mom only had $11,000.

Frank: It was bad, but she worked it out, so that's the way it is. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Tom: Frank, if you need some assistance with that, Olson Law Group would be pleased to assist you with that probate. Frank, you can always reach the Olson Law Group through our website, olsonlawgroup.com, or call us anytime, 407-423-5561.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Tom, I want to mention something about the caller earlier about that, the bank account the bank account for mom with that 11,000 in it. Of course, we talk with people all the time with those bank accounts, but I would say that more recently, as in the last few months, I've had more than ever where there are mom or dad passed away and they forgot about a bank account. It's a similar situation where there was 15,000 in it or there's 20,000 or there's 5,000 or there's 15,000. The point is mom or dad took care of everything else, thought they had everything taken care of, but there was that one outstanding bank account, and people I know are very surprised then what they have to go through to be able to get that money.

Even as recently too, I think more than ever that I'm hearing from these same people that man, the minute that they know that mom or dad passed away, they're not even going to talk to you about the bank account. They're finding it frustrating because they can't even get information, and then more frustrating because everything else was taken care of, but now they have to go through probate.

Tom: It is frustrating for people. I had a lady emailing me last week and her mom had passed away, and the mom had $1,100 in the bank account and number one, $1,100 is a lot of money to some people.

Chris: Oh, it is. Oh, gosh. No, it is.

Tom: Number two, it's just a bad feeling to know that $1,100 is locked up. It's never going to be released. It's going to be there forever and ever. Simply because mom forgot to make that account POD payable on death to the daughter.

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: The emailer had already said, I called down to the probate court. They call me the filing fees alone were $345.

Chris: There you go.

Tom: You just can't afford to probate at $1,100 bank account. That's just, like you say, frustrating to people.

Chris: That's correct. That's why, just as a reminder to listeners out there, and that is that you want to be able to help mom, dad, help your, the elderly relatives, as well as just for everybody making sure just double check all of those accounts because I think one of the ones that they actually forget mostly is the checking account.

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