Probate ---

Whoa! Lots of comments on my last post, about probate and my sister's estate -- so thought I'd just try to clarify how it works, in Wisconsin, but possibly some other states as well.

So, some one dies. Has a will and lists an executor or representative (it's called different things in different states) in their will. In my sister's case she listed me and my father. Then in her will she just said 50/50 split as heirs to her two children, nothing for her executors. Over the years, she'd bought life insurance and had retirement funds which she put a POD on (Payable On Death) beneficiary of her two children. So those things don't have to go to probate. However a couple things, including one annuity and one bank account, she didn't do that. Also she did not specify any personal belongings to anyone, i.e. car, house, etc. Thus we must go to probate.

It costs money to go to probate. You need an attorney. You have to file with the court. There are court filing fees. You have to have an inventory of the amount of money the estate is worth, ie. hire appraisers for real estate and personal property. You have to pay this attorney. You have to pay the appraisers. You have to pay probate filing fees. And then it comes down to you have to get rid of the personal property which means hiring someone to do an estate sale. Meanwhile you have to file IRS plus Wisconsin estate taxes. In my sister's case, also her last year she was alive income taxes plus death/estate taxes.  So you hire an accountant. We also, with what little money in her non-POD accounts have had to keep paying her 2 mortgages, property taxes, house insurance, utility bills until probate is over. That money is dwindling. That is what we (executors) of the estate have to do. Right now we have been paying bills etc. through her estate account, but like I said the money is dwindling. 

Anyway, in my case, when my Bob died, the attorney's/probate/tax accountant fees total were over $16,000.  We didn't even have to appraise anything because I was both heir and executer.

So here is where my father and I stand. We have to pay the attorney, pay the taxes, pay probate filing fees, pay the appraisers, pay mortgage payments and other bills connected to the property (credit cards have been paid off already) and pay the woman who is hopefully is going to do an estate sale -- not sure because of Covid, but hopefully can have an estate sale. And hopefully that will make enough money to pay all the bills. And all this is taking time because of Covid, and no estate sales were being held, just beginning to start up in June. And don't even ask about stuff that has disappeared.... it's been a mess.

If we still owe money, the "short fall", as the attorney phrased it, it's our responsibility. Even though the heirs have already cashed out over $100,000 in insurance and annuity payments. Now that is a Wisconsin law... some states the heirs have to pay, but in Wisconsin it's the executors of the estate who have to pay all those bills.

So! That's how it works, folks, Update your wills! Leave your executors some cash. Or make up some kind of trust or POD everything you can. 

And PS: in a few days it's Bob's death anniversary and I am an emotional mess... just saying