One thing to watch out for independent of probate/wills is that if you’re both mentioned on a mortgage or other loan, it comes due immediately. You don’t just go on making payments to the same old loan after one of the parties dies- it’s essentially breaking the contract or something like that.
I am curious as to how the financial institution would find this out.
Large financial institutions contract with companies that track deaths and give them updates. The institutions then check to see if any are their customers and “fun” stuff ensues.
E.g., a joint checking account might suddenly be locked down until probate. (Depending on how it’s set up, etc.)
It’s the law that they have to do this, so they pay people to track this. People aren’t messing around here.
If your name accidentally appears on such a list, hoo-boy.
Most financial institutions report such payments to one or more of the credit bureaus. If the credit bureau has somebody listed as deceased and is still getting reports of active payments, then a report might get sent back? (The credit bureaus all obtain death notifications from the Social Security Administration in the U.S., which is supposed to help cut down on identity theft.) A lot of institutions also run periodic credit checks on existing accounts, so-called “soft checks” to spot developing problems, and a customer credit check coming back as ‘deceased’ is going to raise an eyebrow. Some financial institutions subscribe to sources such as Obituary Data, and periodically verify that all of their customers are in fact still alive–again, it’s part of identity verification and their responsibility under the PATRIOT Act to know who they’re doing business with.
Another problem would be with insurance–if a claim is ever made and it turns out the property isn’t really owned by the people named on the policy, the insurance company may decline to pay.
I can beat that—Grandpa died in May, 2012, and left a perfectly legal handwritten will, but it is not yet finalized. A lawyer would have prevented a couple of the problems that have arisen.
One of the amusing possibilities that my family is too dumb (but not too crooked) to have thought of is that Grandpa left part of the estate to his twelve grandchildren, but did not name us. Since most of these are step-grandchildren who aren’t biologically related to him, it would have been trivial for someone else to have thrown in a claim, and it would have been a pain to establish who was meant. If anyone wants to claim to be the adopted child of my estranged but deceased uncle, it’s probably not too late.
Here’s hoping your wife is okay and this is all academic.
Hey! how can I get a piece of that action? Sign me up! 
(I keed - as mentioned before, I’m sorry for your probate hell, Dr Drake, and hope it’s over soon.)
You’ve posted this before, and it’s simply not true. If a married couple has a joint mortgage, then the survivor becomes the sole mortgage holder when one dies.
Cite.
Another cite:
Here’s the law specifically preventing banks from calling a joint mortage due upon death:
5 & 6, and possibly 3, prevent banks from doing this.
dropzone–is she OK?
{WORRIED}
Ditto. I hope you are both okay.
Depends on the state.
No it doesn’t. See my post above. US Federal law prevents banks from calling a joint mortgage between spouses due if one spouse dies.
The OP posts on an average of over four posts a day. They’ve only posted twice, since four days ago, the opening of this thread, and it’s been almost a whole day since they’ve been here.
Let us know, when you can, how things are going. We hope you haven’t needed to use the advice here.
Aye, I hope things are okay.
I knew it was a state law, not a Federal one so thanks. But the point remains that bump was wrong about the loan being called.
I don’t recall whether dropzone and his wife have children. If so, the children might be entitled to something in the absence of a will - though I know that varies state by state.
But basically, if there’s a chance of anyone else who might be a logical heir and therefore challenge the hospital-signed “husband gets it all” will, it’s a risky way to go.
Otherwise, I’m pretty sure that every state in the US has a default setting that if there is no will, it all goes to the spouse.
I don’t know how good something like Legal Zoom would be for a simple will. It would still need to be witnessed as appropriate but it should have prompts for the kind of questions a basic will would need to cover. I’ve never used it for a will but did use it for a lease once and it asked for things I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.
When my dad’s wife died, there was no fussing around, he just got everything. When he died intestate, I was the closest relative, so I was appointed executor. But it was just me and my brother, so, no big deal.
That depends on if there’s children. For example, pulling up three states at random, in Illinois, if you die intestate with both a spouse and descendants, the spouse inherits half and the children split the other half. In Tennessee, all of them split equally, except that spouse’s share can’t go under a third. In Arizona, the spouse inherits everything provided that all your descendants are from you and that spouse, if not, it gets complicated.
Right - I mentioned that (children):
[QUOTE=me]
I don’t recall whether dropzone and his wife have children. If so, the children might be entitled to something in the absence of a will - though I know that varies state by state.
…
Otherwise, I’m pretty sure that every state in the US has a default setting that if there is no will, it all goes to the spouse.
[/QUOTE]
The “otherwise” meaning “if no children”.
Best to get real wills drawn up one way or the other anyway.
She gave me power of attorney over everything, which looks like a will.
And how is she? And how are you?