My mother currently is in bad health and may pass away at any time. What am I responsible for when she dies if I am the beneficiary to her insurance policy?
My attorney gave me a checklist of everything that would be needed to execute the will. If there are funds in a bank account and you tell the bank how to disperse the funds be sure to tell them to close the account after that if that's what you want to do otherwise you will continue to get statements for that account and sometimes add a fee for keeping it open. My brother was the executor of my dad's estate and procrastinated big time. I accidently found out that I could collect my share of the inheritance once the judgement of possession was created. Once that happens there is no longer an executor. i could have been taking care of things on my own if I had known that instead of having to wait on my brother. His wife died over 10 years and still has not settled her estate.
My mom is quite ill. She doesn't have enough life insurance even for a decent cremation. I am her POA, so is it possible for me to purchase burial insurance for her? If so where do I start?
To echo an earlier response, you said you are a beneficiary of an insurance policy. As such you have no legal requirements to do anything with respect to your mom or her estate after she passes.
You may have a "verbal agreement" with your mom that your are going to do one thing or another with the money you will get from the insurance policy. If so, that is not enforceable, and you can do with the money what you and your mom discussed or not. Bottom line is if mom named you beneficiary of the insurance policy the money is yours to do with as you choose, and you have no other legal obligations.
Nothing other than paying upfront for her funeral. Call a funeral home and see if you can assign the policy to them if you don't have burial funds.
The death certificate is issued after the funeral/burial/cremation by the county within 30 days in my case. The funeral home in most cases notifies social security of the death and the VA too.
Thank you for your answer We have the Funeral arrangment in place Plus I have a DNR also in place for both my mom and I. I'm trying to stay right on top of everything that has to be done, I also have all the paper work done and it has been in place for the last 5 years or so. mrjess5
Your question was related to your being the beneficiary of the life insurance policy.
If the insurance policy is your mother's only asset I would imagine she intended for it to cover her funeral expenses. Unless she has already taken care of that. That is the only thing I can think of that you may be morally responsible for.
I can't answer your question precise but I do have this related thought to offer. If you still have time, you may want to make the funeral arrangements now. When the doctors told me my father had perhaps only weeks to live, I went to the mortuary for "pre-planning" and I'm so glad I did. I learned that you can pay up front for a policy that will lock in the prices of what you select, and allow you to make decisions in a (somewhat) less emotional state of mind, possible saving yourself or the estate expenses that might come from grief, guilt or impulse at the time of death. In the event that all her resources are spent while she lives and your loved one needs to rely on Medicaid for further hospital or nursing home costs, the money you put into this pre-planning policy is NOT considered an asset, when Medicaid calculates the spend-down. So it's protected, where other assets, such as a house, would not be protected. My father lived about 9 months longer after the doctors said he only had weeks left. We were within just a few months of running out of his savings to pay for the nursing home. (Thank goodness I had him in my home for 4 years before we had to make the nursing home decision.) But I never had to worry about paying for acceptable -nice but not extravagant- funeral and burial expenses, which would have otherwise had to come out-of-pocket from me and my siblings. I may be writing this after the fact of your loss, and if so, please accept my condolences. If not, you have my heartfelt sympathy for what you're experiencing now, because in many ways, watching her suffer and waiting for the inevitable is also very difficult. No matter when it comes, the loss of a parent is hard and sad.
Thank You all for your comments I'm going through something like you mentioned in your statements. My brother lives in Virgina and sister lives somewhere in Florida and neither of them have seen our mother in years and when it comes to her passing away they will be looking for something but it's already in the will and last statement that my mom had done 6 years ago. I'm the exctor and POA on what our mom has, I've been with our mother for the last 18years and now she has Demeture and Alzhimers diagnoised 2 years ago, iI take her to all of her doctors appointments,hairdresser appointments,etc. I'm her soul caregiver but if I have to do something her Granddaughter will releave me to get things done that I have to do. Again THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND GREAT COMMENTS.
You may have a "verbal agreement" with your mom that your are going to do one thing or another with the money you will get from the insurance policy. If so, that is not enforceable, and you can do with the money what you and your mom discussed or not. Bottom line is if mom named you beneficiary of the insurance policy the money is yours to do with as you choose, and you have no other legal obligations.
Nothing other than paying upfront for her funeral. Call a funeral home and see if you can assign the policy to them if you don't have burial funds.
The death certificate is issued after the funeral/burial/cremation by the county within 30 days in my case. The funeral home in most cases notifies social security of the death and the VA too.
If the insurance policy is your mother's only asset I would imagine she intended for it to cover her funeral expenses. Unless she has already taken care of that.
That is the only thing I can think of that you may be morally responsible for.
If you still have time, you may want to make the funeral arrangements now. When the doctors told me my father had perhaps only weeks to live, I went to the mortuary for "pre-planning" and I'm so glad I did. I learned that you can pay up front for a policy that will lock in the prices of what you select, and allow you to make decisions in a (somewhat) less emotional state of mind, possible saving yourself or the estate expenses that might come from grief, guilt or impulse at the time of death.
In the event that all her resources are spent while she lives and your loved one needs to rely on Medicaid for further hospital or nursing home costs, the money you put into this pre-planning policy is NOT considered an asset, when Medicaid calculates the spend-down. So it's protected, where other assets, such as a house, would not be protected.
My father lived about 9 months longer after the doctors said he only had weeks left. We were within just a few months of running out of his savings to pay for the nursing home. (Thank goodness I had him in my home for 4 years before we had to make the nursing home decision.) But I never had to worry about paying for acceptable -nice but not extravagant- funeral and burial expenses, which would have otherwise had to come out-of-pocket from me and my siblings.
I may be writing this after the fact of your loss, and if so, please accept my condolences. If not, you have my heartfelt sympathy for what you're experiencing now, because in many ways, watching her suffer and waiting for the inevitable is also very difficult. No matter when it comes, the loss of a parent is hard and sad.