Estate of Deceased Person

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MandaC

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I am just looking for some pointers in respect of an estate and if anyone could help, it would be great.

No Will. We are looking at getting statements from all accounts/policies/etc and then getting appointing a Solicitor. There appears to be several debts (loans and credit cards) both in the name of the decased on his own and jointly with spouse.

There are also numerous Bank Accounts some with small credits and some overdrawn.

I know in the case of credit cards that they have a claim against the Estate. My friend has no income and at the moment friends and family are lodging sums to one of the accounts to keep her afloat financially. The main current account used is one of the joint accounts. Does it matter that family are lodging money to this account rather than an account in one name only? Should I tell her at the moment to operate out an account in her own name only until things are sorted.
 
The joint accounts pass to her under survivorship so it doesn't matter which account her friends lodge money into.
 
Does that mean then that any funds in the joint accounts are not classed as part of the Estate, if it is a case there are substantial debts in the sole name of the other person, ie, can the credit card companies claim against the joint accounts.
 
Debts would have to be paid out of the estate first but if there wasn't sufficient funds in the estate joint property could be eaten up. Did the deceased own any property?
 
Only the family home, which will (hopefully) be covered under the mortgage protection policy.

I understood that credit card debts could only be pursued against the individuals estate. In cases where there are insufficient funds in the Estate, I thought they could not pursue the spouse for the debt.

Given that there are joint accounts, perhaps these are part of the estate and it would be advisable for the surving spouse to operate out of her own current account instead of putting her funds(given by family) into a joint account which could be claimed by his credit cards debts.

I am just trying to under stand how it works with joint accounts.
 
I think that raises an interesting point. Joint accounts, in general, fall outside a deceased's estate and are not accounted for in Probate. However, Revenue will always enquire about joint accounts - reasons why opened and balances etc.,etc.

Here, it looks as if there are assets to meet debts so the question is can a beneficiary of one half of jointly held assets in an estate resist efforts by creditors to claim those monies?

Certainly, the creditors can sue the estate/ executors for the debt. If the estate, however, has no value ( because all assets are jointly held) does the executor have a legal obligation to pay?

Answers on a postcard please!


mf
 
Am still a bit lost with this. If the house passes to spouse by way of mortgage protection policy, do any of the creditors of the accounts in his name only have any comeback against the property which has passed to the wife(family home)
 
The house does not pass to the spouse by way of mortgage protection policy. The house would have to be in joint names for it to pass to the spouse. Was it?
 
Yes the house was in joint names. There is a mortgage protection policy on it and if it pays out the house will be paid off.

There are different bills, some in his name only and some in joint names.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
 
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