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My dad died and now im a fiduciary of the estate, what's next to do?

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Sunny - sorry for your loss. Your dad was on hospice & in a group home rather than a NH wasn't he? As one who is currently admist being an executor as my mom died earlier this year, here's my thoughts.

Your first project is to deal with his funeral & burial. Was this already set up? If not, I'd suggest you get another family member or a good close friend to help with this. The costs will be 8/10K for a traditional & maybe 2K for a cremation. If dad has assets, the costs should come from his estate to pay this. more often than not family ends up fronting all FH costs - if so, that will be a claim against the estate, so keep receipts.

The FH usually orders death certificates. You need 1 original for every bank, insurance policy, CC, he had. If he has a house then 2-4 for house related tie-ins like each utility company, property insurance, etc. 1 for each heir as well. I got over a dz. The more you order initially the cheapest it is. Needing one 3 months from now will be costly & will take weeks to get unless you pay rush, so get extras.

His banking situation as the next item to deal with. If the account is POD to you, you can use those funds to pay the FH. If not POD, it will likely be frozen till someone presents Letters testamentary & opens probate if there is a will or dies a lineal heirship if no will. You may be able to get to bank ahead of SS death notification but it happens pretty quickly. If either SS or retirement income comes in after the last full month of eligible payment, it will be clawed back. So if that could be the case, you will need to leave the full checks amount in the bank as SS & retirements will attempt to recover over & over & there will be a NSF charge if $ not there.

I was POD on moms account and basically I have left the account as is but now tied to my SS and have it as a bank account to deal with the estate.

There is a valid will naming you as the executor right? So you can do probate. About probate, personally I think doing probate is a good idea. But many do not ever open probate at all. If dad died with assets (house, land car, $) that will need to be transferred or sold, then probate of some sort will be needed. States vary on probate, some have full on probate, others have this plus small estates affidavit & some allow for a muniment of title. You probably have an idea of what dads assets are. For his debts, you can see what bills come in the next month or so, to get an idea on final medical costs & his funeral. What these look like will help you determine what path to take on probate (or not).

Outside of the funeral, you can take your time to deal with the other items. I'd suggest you google your county probate court to see what requirements are for opening probate. Some states allow a year, other up to 4 years to open. What often happens is family pressures the executor to do whatever to get what they think their inhiertance is. If you have been the one dealing with his care & the costs of care, non-involved family is usually clueless on how expensive it was.
Hopefully yours is not like this.

If dad was on Medicaid, there will be a MERP "letter of intent" sent to whatever address medicaid had on file for dads contact regarding this. If dad died with assets, MERP is going to make all estate & probate lots more complex.

Also hospice Medicare benefit provides for grief counseling for family.
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The Ohio Bar Association has brochures on what to do, or you could ask the attorney you are working with. It will be worth an hour of his time to avoid needing him later.
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Sunny, in addition to the death certificates, I believe you'll need what are called Letters Testamentary, attesting to the fact that you've been named Executrix (or Personal Representative as described in some states).

Check the Will to confirm that expenses of his last illness are priority payments. Over the next few months, you should be getting statements for any expenses that weren't covered by insurance. Those will be priority payments. Some doctors just write off the charge; that's what happened when my sister died. If there isn't enough money in your father's estate, be frank and in writing notify the doctors that there are no funds.

Another important thing to do which is more common sense than legal is to change your father's address to yours so that all his bills and financial data are sent to you. You'll probably need a Letter Testamentary to show to the post office. When I did this when my father was in rehab for a broken leg, I had to show the post office a copy of the DPOA naming me as proxy. They copied it for their records.

I am sorry for your loss; it's especially hard when you have to turn around and deal with all the legal and financial issues.
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Be sure to secure his home & belongings, if he had one, it is a common problem that family members will "help themselves" to any and everything. My mom died earlier this year and I had a locksmith out (even before she died, actually, since she was in the hospital and I could not be watching her home at same time).
Another thing -- his Medicare online account will be disabled very soon, so if you haven't already signed up for access to it, do it now (as Executor you need the billing info) and download it for future reference.
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And most of all, DO NOT let the family members try and tell you what to do. As Executor you were chosen because the decedent trusted you, never forget this trust that has been placed on you. If you expect difficulties with family members, you can purchase an Executor insurance policy which will protect you in case they try to sue you (personally you are liable if they can prove you "damaged" their inheritance).
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Thanks for the great answers miss my daddy so much I was daddy's girl :)
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