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Good luck,
Carol
They called me bipolar, sick, a thief, and on and on..I was almost crying. The Judge saw through all of them, appointed me conservator and I have done a kick-ass job.
I am on my moms credit union account as POD. The rest will pay off any bills (her annuities) and anything left is in an educational trust she literally pissed away paying my 55 year old sisters rent since 2002...plus, she got an $18,000.00 car, and $10,500.00 for every birthday....I got $100.00 for mine. The grandchildren that are left will never see the educational money...the Red Lobster got it along with Florida movie theaters my sister has stock in....she uses "my life stinks" to extort money from my mother...not anymore. I am in charge and she is CUT OFF, by the Probate Judge...he knows all about her!
I wish I belonged to a family that would treat me nice....my husband and son get it, and they stand by me 100%. My son and his cousins have nothing to do with each other....calling your mom a thief is not the way to bond with family.
All the advice is useful so far, but also consider, if your mother is coherent and able, to add the designation on the checking/bank account, "POD" which means "payable on death." It is free of charge, is revocable, and she can name any one person. It is sometimes called "the poor man's trust".
Here are my thoughts:
1. If your mom has a true estate - that is she has assets that legally will need a change of title or ownership in order for people named in her will to get, like a home or a car or stocks, then you will need to go thru probate. Probate costs money to do - about 3 - 5% of what the estate is.
2. BUT if mom owns nothing - no house, no car - she was just on Social Security or SS and a small retirement, there is no real need to do probate. So IF all she has is those coming in monthly and maybe a small savings in the bank, then go and get the money out before she dies and the account gets frozen and you have to go thru probate. If you are on the account as a POD (paid on death) the money will go to you once she dies but you will need to go with a death certificate in order for this to happen. This can take time.
If you are the only relative, there will be nobody to challenge what you do. Don't worry about it. Use the money for her funeral, give some to a charity that mom liked (Humane Society, Leukemia, whatever), arrange for flowers placed on the grave every month. If you want to pay off her bills with it, then do that.
I can remember being in probate court and there would be families there for a hearing over bank accounts with just a few thousand dollars in them and the nasty level of fighting going on over it. Just ugly. If you can avoid it, do so. Good luck.
I know it seems simpler to do what you're doing but it could cost you in the long run.
If you're doing this to be off the grid, it really doesn't work. If they are getting
SS then they probably also getting Medicare. All that is constantly updated so a death notice happens within 48 hours. SS will do a claw-back on any payments sent after the month of death too. The banks are linked into the SS notices and will freeze the accounts that match.
Yes, if she truly has no assets, then you never need to worry about probate. But if there is anything out there (house, car, she is part owner of some family property or business even if it is from ages ago) that would require a transfer of title in order for the next person to have clean ownership, then you have to go thru probate for the transfer to happen.
You say she has Soc. Security and a small pension & whatever savings she has (not a whole lot) goes into a savings account in your name. When you do that the $$ becomes commingled. The state can require that everything in the savings account (that is in your name) be spent down on her care even if some of the money is your own personal savings because it has been commingled. Medicaid does not allow money earned from work or Social Security to be “commingled” with anyone else’s money if the person wants to maintain eligibility for Medicaid.
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