happy Friday everybody happy Friday welcome to Facebook live we actually have been newcomer to the show and this is Desiree and I’m gonna let Desiree tell you a little bit about what she does with the law firm hello everybody my name is Desiree and I’m a personal injury paralegal here at the brandy Austin law firm I pretty much work on cases after suit has been filed and also handled cases before the suit has been filed so I do pre litigation as well as litigation here pretty much all revolving around personal injury today
we’re just gonna go over and kind of discuss the different estates in the debts and exactly what happens and when either a loved one or a family member passes away a lot of times everyone knows that I actually handle we’ve switched it to where it’s um pegged apartment probate estate and elder and with the guardianship as well so I deal with the state’s all the times and one of the main questions that I always ask is that they you know does my debts do one am I liable for those debts I’m do
the debts go away who’s responsible so today we’re just gonna go ahead and um kind of answer you know some of those questions you’re gonna ask me some questions I’m gonna try to answer them the best of my ability and then if you have definitely if you have any questions or anything for us and please feel free to leave them in the comments below and we’ll definitely try to get those responses out to you pretty quickly and then so we’ll go ahead and proceed with a show so I’m actually
excited about this topic and I think that I can speak for a lot of the viewers you know people always wonder what happens when a situation like that happens when you have a family member that does the way I’m pretty sure that’s a you know huge concern within a lot of people’s minds the debts the estate just all those questions so Heather what happens when is when an estate actually has debts the first process of course and before in a lot of our Facebook live so we address probate sand estates and what
what you have to do the financial responsibility getting someone to be proved up as the executor so and basically it’s you know hopefully you’ve already kind of gone through that process and we have an executor on the estate and basically the the executor is the person and when you execute a will majority of the Wills have what’s called there’s a section in there that says debts upon you know payment basically upon passing so but the executor is responsible for basically paying those
debts and I can only say how we you know practice here at the you know Brittany on Stonewall firm and what we usually do is I honestly tell everybody you know the mail you’re already dealing with a stressful situation so you definitely don’t want the debt collectors calling you and harassing you during that time so I literally tell everybody to gather a box throw everything into that box and then when I put it out of sight out of mind I want to ask you to come back and you know bring it to me then we can kind
of discuss it but ultimately the executor the responsibility is to collect all the and the debts for the estate and then we do the notice to creditors and by law and that’s where a lot of people are misinformed by law they have to the creditors have to file a notice with the courts there is a legal process that has to go through and I know a lot of times that you do you know personal injury and so the claims it’s kind of the same thing of once they settle their their case and they have and
duction it’s kind of that is kind of the same thing within the probate I’m at that point if I have a hostile lane or hospital bills that I have tried to assist as far as facilitating getting in there and doing some reductions for him so okay so let me see if I understand so let’s say we have a situation and a grandmother and a granddaughter and the daughter was the executor so once the grandmother passes the granddaughter who’s gonna be responsible pretty much for all her bills yes she
does she does not carry the debt herself you know that debt does not become hers but she is responsible for facilitating either getting that debt paid off and getting it reduced and paying with the state funds it does not have to come from the executor personal you know pocket basically it looks from the estate so that’s another thing too that I get asked all all the times you know if there’s different estates there you don’t have all this money we you know estates it can be from five hundred
dollars to you know five thousand million you know there’s different sizes but ultimately you know the actual debt itself it comes from the estate and not the executor personal pocket okay ex I think a lot of people get worried about that you know they’re gonna go broke pay off all this debt so it’s not basically it doesn’t fall on them in that sense she does pocket yeah that is correct um so what does the executor z– duty to pay for debts incurred by the estate and within there and like I said they they
have to actually file a claim with the courts and the notice of creditors basically it’s a publication and that gets you know published stating that that person has since passed and any debtors creditors anybody you know that they have to follow that formal claim so if they do file the claim with the courts again I can Liat esta how we do it here if they follow that actual claim that prompts me to contact that you know whether it usually a lot of times it’s a debt collection agency because of course
administration can take some time you know some states can take up to a year two years to settle so a lot of them are the debt collection agencies but whomever and you know the banks at that time speaking with them then we can kind of get in there and try to do some reductions kind of see what the estate is and we personally strive to try to keep the family with as much you know money from the estate as false absolutely absolutely okay am I able to sell the property of an estate yes but not before this is one of my biggest
things not before you’re appointed as the executor administrator you know you have to actually be appointed first and because there are some you know there’s some title companies will kind of get out there get you signed in on a contract already to close that contract but unless you have that fiduciary power granted by the courts you’re gonna end up getting into a situation with that contract where there’s a buyer of that home that is pressuring you hey when’s the closing day when’s this one’s your
court date and as much as I like to work fast-paced and it’s not always on my schedule I am under the court supervision so getting that you know getting the court to comply with a closing date of two weeks when we have to hurry into an administration within two weeks it’s almost impossible so but yes you do if you are able to sell the property but you don’t have to be appointed first so it’s definitely a process just as with any other area of law it’s a process that goes you know
through the courts there is levels that you have to go through because people have to take that in to consider correct I do they do the estate debts become my own yeah we touch basis on that little bit ago and now they do not and and with their a lot of people they they feel that it does become their own because of course if you’re say god forbid if your mom passed and that was the only person that was living and you’re the sole beneficiary of that estate technically the estate is paying
the debts you know of your mother so it’s kind of taking away from the pot of your money so to speak so everybody always fills at in essence it is coming from them but technically that money is not yours you know it’s from the estate and until you do that distribution and you become you know and because the beneficiary of that it you know it’s not quite yours just yet so okay and of course not pretty sure everybody wants to know this question what happens if someone does not pay the debt within there a lot of
the times I’m honestly depending on the value of the debt and they can’t come back and do a lawsuit you know and because one as the executor you have these responsibilities you have a fiduciary duty to not only fulfill the you know the actual embassy that’s wishes but again that clause in the will payments upon death and you are responsible to settle up the estate first and so individually they well they can’t come after you individually as a person but they can come after you as
either the executor the administrator and things of that nature so you definitely don’t want that to happen and which but there have been times honestly that’s you know a bill gets misplaced and you know we’re not become aware we kind of you know go back in and facilitate things and assist with it but just kind of being like hey I’m not gonna pay anything at all yes you can they’re there legal ramifications from it so can they come after the executor ‘he’s like house
if they have house car within there and that’s the difference between individually you know as a person and then as the executor now say if you receive $50,000 from an estate and you go and purchase a new house with that 50,000 technically that you know there could be some things that could kind of come in there but as soon as you know if you attempt to try and like I said there is something that you can do as far as to you know there’s only so much you know you kind of know the same thing
with personal injury you know you have that you know even if it’s policy limits you have that main number you try to make everybody happy you know but ultimately your client you want to make sure that they have you know what they’re entitled to so you can do different things you know with the estate being insolvent and you know reductions you know tour that way you can facilitate that everybody gets a little bit of something what if there is no money in the estate to cover the debts and that that’s or that I was using
earlier about it being an insolvent and state which that basically means that there’s no funds which usually once it comes in there because of the process of the probate and you do have to follow us on an inventory appraisement and list of claims so usually if there’s not any money within the estate and you have these debtors literally they’re going to want to see a copy of that inventory showing hey there’s not any assets and along with the verification from the attorney saying that and then honestly
they’ll write off the debt they understand you know if there’s not you know what money to cover it there’s not much you can do so okay so what like I said I do know I work in a personal injury so I’m very familiar with personal injury you know we we work on a lot of cases where we cases and there’s a settlement and I have worked on cases before where the actual client that we’re representing has actually passed away in the midst of the settlement maybe the case has not been settled just yet and they pass away
what happens if a client who has a personal injury claim in the process passes away before a case that all settles and within their unfortunately that’s and it happens a lot like I said we are a general practice I’m firm so and you know even though the personal injury is not my department at some points it does become mine because at that at that point and if someone passes you do have to get you know the next of kin so the biggest thing would be Ted you know of course I’m sure we would
know who the next of kin is and but one of them would have to go ahead and kind of proceed with doing the the whole probate process and there’s several different types of probate and that you can do you know from big to small meet them in a titled you know affidavit of heirship and then of course the big independent dependent and then you know administration but that person you know the heir ultimately would have to be responsible for the estate and then in your turn on your side you’d have to
amend your petition and do different things to where it actually names the estate of and then basically serve the administrator or executor of the estate to go ahead and kind of get them on notice and then we can kind of facilitate it at that time through through both of the courts unfortunately but at that time it usually goes through the probate court so it’s definitely a process yes if a family member does not have a power of attorney on file when a family member passes what happens that’s
that’s a good question and one that’s a big misconception a lot of people think that hey I have this power of attorney and this person’s past I still have the power to do what I need to unfortunately the power of attorneys are only in effect when the person is alive the will comes in place when someone passes so and even though that you may appoint someone because I know even drafting mind you know power of attorney is the durable or statutory one of the sections on their grants someone
in the event to handle a lawsuit well again it’s only firm when they’re living so you know upon someone passing we would still have to revert back and kind of do the whole appoint an administrator so is there a process to format a power of attorney after an injured individual passes or is it to öhlins from every word that is their process to format a power of attorney after after an individual passes or is it too late that’s someone kind of before it’s too late you know and again at that point the
will comes into comes into effect when you know that happened so and there’s different things and there’s different you know the power of attorney act I always state that you know it’s always better to have one than not have one because I mean there are different things and in life that happens so you know especially car accident say you get in a car accident and you have this lawsuit if you have that power of attorney that says that person can bring that claim on your behalf and you’re
laid up in the hospital and you can’t meet with the attorneys this person can facilitate it but upon passing unfortunately it is too late at that period so that brings me to another question with you being the professional in this area what would you what would you say is a good you know like a good time frame for someone to get a power of attorney or a wheel on file like do you think everybody should have one or I mean a will yes 100% I always say and a lot of people think that if you know
they don’t own their home if they don’t own these different things they shouldn’t have a will that’s not true in anything that passes title whether it’s a vehicle at a house I always say even if you have children you know especially mine are children because there’s so many different things in a will that you can present so like a testamentary trust to make sure that there is someone that is you know a trustee if something happened to you take care of your kids but as far as the power of attorney that
the will 100% you know I say as soon as you turn 18 you get one and then it kind of changes with you when you have you know through your life if when you have children when you get married if you you know hit it rich and win the lottery and but for basis like I said a car or even a house and that stuff that you actually want to pass title down to and the power of attorney I’m a little bit more I say jaded when it comes to a specific age and just because I do deal with the elderly Department and I see a lot of
fraud I see a lot of elderly people taking being taken advantage of and so my number one thing before I used to always stay not to do Co agents because they would have to agree all the time now I would say if you have the capacity you can get literally you can execute the power of attorney for today but make it effective upon your incapacity and then if you have two agents they have to work together so it kind of eliminates the fraud aspect of it but and definitely there’s different things and
you know we do provide you know free consultations to where each estate is different and each claim is different so we do provide that here at the brandy Austin law firm and you deaf wait and contact us you can go on our website Brandi Austin Lancome or you can contact us at eight one seven eight or one nine nine zero six and I’m Heather and this is Desiree and thank you for tuning in I’m this Friday and you’ll have a happy weekend have a great weekend
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