Settling an Estate

Upon the death of a spouse, you as the survivor will have a variety of things to do, starting with funeral arrangements. After that, you will need to do at least some of these listed tasks:

• Notify the Social Security Office and any other payors of retirement or pension benefits the person was receiving prior to death, of the death. To be eligible for a Social Security benefit, a person must be alive for the whole month for which a benefit is paid. The benefit paid on the third of a month is based on survival through the entire prior month, so if the deceased died on the last day of March, the benefit paid on April 3 must be returned to the Social Security Administration. If funds are direct deposited, you should notify your bank and ask them to return such benefits.  A “death benefit” ($255) is payable only to the surviving spouse or minor children. Other retirement or pension benefits may be pro-rated for the part of a month that the deceased lived; each retirement program has its own rules.
• Notify the Post Office of the death and arrange to have all bills and income accruing to the estate sent to you.
• Locate safe deposit box(es), and get legal advice as to whether the person who has access can open the box without legal action. It may be helpful to have witnesses when you open the box, because assets in the box may be part of the estate.
• Obtain Certified Death Certificates for insurance companies, financial institutions, corporations in which the deceased owned stocks or bonds, to terminate joint ownership of real estate, and to transfer title to motor vehicles.
• Probate an Estate, if Needed.  You may need to engage a lawyer to probate an estate, if required. An “estate” includes all property owned solely by the decedent at the time of death. In Utah, transfer of property from an estate requires probate if:
• the estate owns real estate (land) of any value, and/or
• the estate owns assets (other than land and not including cars) whose net worth is more than $100,000.

If an estate must be probated, the court will designate a “Personal Representative” (usually the person named in the decedent’s will). Here are some of the things a Personal Representative is called upon to do:

• collect all monies owed to the estate; pay taxes and mortgages on any real property owned by the decedent; manage the assets, make repairs where needed (acting always as a “prudent investor”);
• file estate tax returns; file the estate’s income tax return, submit problems to the Probate Court (where terms of the Will are unclear or ambiguous, the Court will judge what they mean);
• settle the remainder of the estate in accordance with the will; submit a final accounting to the beneficiaries and to the Probate Court.

Property owned jointly with a survivor is owned by the survivor, not by the estate, despite anything that the decedent may have written in a will. Joint ownership of realty is established by Deed with words such as “joint tenant” or “with rights of survivorship”. Without such language, a Deed may establish common ownership between “tenants in common”, and what interest the decedent owned is part of the estate. A bank account owned by the decedent and another person is owned by the survivor, despite anything that the decedent may have written in a will.

Insurance or other contractual relationships are controlled by the language of the contract. For example, benefits of a life insurance policy will be paid to the beneficiary despite anything that the insured/decedent may have written in a will. Similarly a bank account that is, according to the account records, payable on death to a designated person will be paid to that person if he/she services the depositor, despite anything that the depositor decedent may have written in a will.

Assets other than land, including up to four motor vehicles, (if the total net value, not including the motor vehicles, does not exceed $100,000) can be transferred without a court probate to the decedent’s successors, those persons other than creditors who are entitled to the decedent’s property under a will or according to Utah law, by submitting an “Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property.”