By Liza Weiman Hanks NABBW’s Estate Planning Associate Dear Liza,  My father passed away recently, and all of his and my mom’s assets are held in a living trust (except an individual checking account), of which I am now the Trustee.  A few collection agencies are now contacting me about collecting on some credit card balances, which are fairly significant.   From what I’ve read online, it sounds like debt collectors might not be able to lay any claims against the trust, but they can collect from the personal estate of the deceased (i.e. checking account or other assets held in the... Read More

Dear Liza: My dad named his mother as his beneficiary, but she passed away in 2004.  My dad died in 2013 but didn’t change his beneficiary. I am my father’s only child and he has no wife, so who gets the money ?  When a person dies and there’s no surviving beneficiary named for an account, the assets would go that person’s “estate.” You don’t say what kind of account this is, but the most common kind of account with beneficiary designations would be a retirement account, so I’ll make that assumption (though most beneficiary accounts work the same way). What that means is that,... Read More