Yesterday was a succession of meetings with lawyers and bankers. They were nice enough people, but I now have a clearer picture of what hell would be like. It’s forms, forms, forms, the clicking of computer keyboards, mysterious requests, and a lot of passive butt-sitting. I did close out several bank accounts and converted them to checks that I’ll deliver to another bank in Minnesota.
And then…my mother had a half dozen annuities, investments that we’re in the process of notifying the holding companies that she’s dead, which triggers them to send out forms to all of her heirs who then have to fill out pages and pages of information about themselves, provoking them to vomit forth checks. Progress was made.We have begun the process of untangling my mom from the grasp of capitalism.
Today, I have to deal with the DMV and realtors. Abandon all hope.
PZ wrote: We have begun the process of untangling my mom from the grasp of capitalism.
I reply: I wish you didn’t have to drown in all this abusive bureaucracy. But, that is the essence and desire of crapitallism. It is so nice that you have posted many of the good memories. It is sad that is temporarily negated by the brutal reality of the process you must endure. Hopefully none of the other heirs will throw a wrench in the works and it will all be over soon, so you can get back to ‘abnormal’
Best Wishes from all of us at The Arts In Arizona
In my district, the National Association of Realtors sends out campaign material for Republican candidates. I fear you are lost dealing with them.
It could be much, much worse.
Just be glad she had a will and that you (PZ) are the named executor in that will.
Just be glad that there are no (apparent to outsiders) legitimate doubts about the validity of that will, ranging from “not executed properly” (fortunately, Washington courts are extremely skeptical of merely “arguable” challenges to execution) to “under the undue influence of someone who benefits from that influence.”
Not entirely sure what can be done to ease the grasp of capitalism in cases where the deceased was free to make any investment choices they liked out of many thousands of different options.
In the UK, the government does have a “Tell Us Once” scheme where you just have to send the death certificate to one place and they will notify all the different national and local government agencies (pension, tax, benefits, blue badge, passport, election, etc.) of their passing, and that certainly reduced the amount of paperwork in my dad’s case, but we still had to handle notifying and dealing with the financial institutions and private pensions ourselves.
Of course, the UK doesn’t have 50 different state governments all with different rules and regulations to deal with too (though Scotland and Northern Ireland are different from England and Wales), which I am sure complicates things, so even if there was some kind of national probate scheme that financial institutions could join, I suspect the disparity of state regulations would make it very hard to implement.
We’re also fortunate that we’re not having any internal squabbles about the inheritance. We’ve all agreed to simply liquidate everything, and that I then split the pie equally.
Hey, I just got back from the Auburn DMV, and…it was painless! I took care of the transfer of title, etc., in about 20 minutes! I wish everything else went so smoothly.
“I did close out several bank accounts and converted them to checks that I’ll deliver to another bank ”
This thing baffles me the most about the US financial system… you still use checks?!? on paper?!?
I live in the NL, but a couple of years back I had to make a payment to the US IRS. The instructions were to send a check… I went to my bank and they said “whut?!? those haven’t existed for 20 years now!” Now that sent me down a real rabbit hole of figuring how to transfer money internationally…
You probably had to make sure you had enough death certificates to send to each of these fine institutions.
Yes. And some demand originals, others accept copies. I also have to show up with “Letters Testamentary” to prove that I’m authorized to be doing this work.
I went through it with my folks, since I’m The Responsible One. I’m almost at the age where my kids will have to do it for me. Fortunately, I have wonderful kids. But THEY’ve been getting direct mail from AARP for a while.
That said, it’s a First World problem.