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Mom passed away a few weeks ago and I am the executor of Mom's will. I am wondering how I should handle notifying credit card companies and hospitals regarding her bills. Here is some back story- Months before moms death, my Mom, brother and I sold her home and got rid of everything in the house aside from a few pieces of furniture that Mom moved into her new assisted living apartment. Mom had a joint checking account with my brother, who was her POA. Upon death Mom was insolvent- she had no real estate, no vehicles, no investments, no savings accounts, no retirement accounts, no safe deposit boxes, no assets aside from a few old inexpensive pieces of furniture that she used in her assisted living apartment, no expensive jewelry and no valuable collections of any kind. The checking account is now my brothers as he was joint with Mom. Mom is clearly insolvent. What steps do I need to take to notify unsecured creditors, credit bureaus and hospitals of Moms death? I want to close out accounts and let the companies know that Mom is insolvent as there is no estate to pay her bills. Do I send a letter and death certificate with the latest bills to each? Do I phone each creditor to close accounts and tell them there is no money to pay? The issue I have with phoning is that the companies will all have my phone number due to caller ID and I don't want these companies hounding my phone and bothering me as this debt has nothing to do with me. Mom lived in Indiana and I am the executor of Moms will so this job I feel is up to me at this point and not my brother as he was POA. I figure he could give me all of Mom's bills and I could take over from here. Any information you can share with me is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

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I don't know what info you need to give them but when you call, if you want to block your cell phone number from showing up on other phones you can do it temporarily simply by dialing *67 before the number you're calling. They will never see your #.
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Tell your brother not to spend the money he got from the joint account. Don't be surprised if mom's creditors push back looking for a better explanation than "she was insolvent". If the dollar amount is big enough, they may go after your brother for payment. They could claim that a fraudulent transfer of assets resulted in them not getting paid.
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Do NOT pay. Send a death certificate and in most cases, unless the credit card debt is extremely high (and even then probably not) the debt is written off by them. I was told this by an attorney. Now, if you were charging up a bunch of stuff just prior to her death than that might be questioned.
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Send a copy of the death certificate. Simply state that you are the executor of her estate, and that there is no funds in the estate.

They will put a watch on the local probate court dockets. After about 12-18 months of no probate case for your mother...they will write it off.

DO NOT let them try to get you to say you will pay these bills....you will not, and the estate cannot.
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Thank you for all of the answers and I wanted to add this-

The checking account became a joint account with my bother 10 months ago after my father passed away in September (yes, I lost both parents within 10 months). We didn't add my brother to this account at the last minute or weeks prior to moms death. I would assume the account is my brothers now and nobody could go after it.

None of the accounts were charged on recently and Mom had been paying the monthly minimum faithfully.

Does *67 really work?
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Question- couln't your brother go to the bank, present the death certificate and have her name removed on the accounts? then they would be solely your brother's?
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Yes *67 really works. Try calling someone you know and they’ll tell you it’ll come up unavailable or unknown caller. Something like that.
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Brother would probably have to close out the one account and open another. But the CC company can’t come after the bank account.
I would write a form letter. Make copies of the letter and of a death certificate. Don’t mail to the payment address. Include a copy of the bill with the letter.
You can try the *67 and call a friend or brother and see if the number shows up if you don’t trust it. But to me a phone call with no number doesn’t offer the cc company any proof that what you are saying is true. A death certificate is pretty clear.
I’m sorry for the loss of your parents.
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If you mail a death certificate or anything else to anybody, I'd mail it certified so that you'll have confirmation that someone with the co received it.
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