Guardianship Question

Love&Light

I have a question for those of you who are guardians. My father’s wife recently passed and as a condition of a rather contentious coguardianship we split the joint bank account assets down the middle, to establish the guardianship account.

Now that she has passed, I have a slew of late bills from her expenses living in his house (Utilities, property tax, HOA, insurance). Obviously I’ve paid those to “keep the lights on” despite  them being her responsibility while she was living. It is a significant number in the many thousands. 

Note that there was absolutely no money in her personal checking or savings accounts which are now frozen, and she listed her children as beneficiaries on any life insurance policies which were sizable. They have no intention of covering their mother’s bills with the estate proceeds. 

Given the history with this family and their financial malfeasance with appropriating my father’s assets before the guardianship took place, I am concerned that any outstanding personal debts she may have accrued like credit cards, medical etc may be considered my father’s responsibility.

Are there any lawyers on the forum that can weigh in or guardians who have had experience with this? I am hoping that the fact that he is a Ward and we established the guardian account somehow protects him from being responsible for any of her debts. Obviously I will check in with my attorney but if it’s a straightforward answer that doesn’t require a $400 phone call, I’d really appreciate it.

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towhee

Not a lawyer, but-

 I know estate rules differ from state to state, and, this really sounds like a can of worms. 

My advice is to talk to a lawyer in your state.

King Boo

Who is executor of her estate?

This has the potential to balloon, I suspect it will be well worth whatever it costs to get it directly from your CELA.

Love&Light

Her child is the executor of her estate. I did  some additional reading as I'm experiencing some anxiety:

Can I be responsible to pay off the debts of my deceased spouse?

In most cases you will not be responsible to pay off your deceased spouse's debts. As a general rule, no one else is obligated to pay the debt of a person who has died. There are some exceptions and the exceptions vary by state.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/am-i-responsible-to-pay-off-the-debts-of-my-deceased-spouse-en-1467/

The TLDR is that the estate is responsible, and if there is no money in the estate, it usually gets written off by the creditors. Also beneficiaries of insurance policies are not responsible for the debts of the deceased.

So all in all, great planning on their part. My Father and our family once again suffers from this family's greed.

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