Dear Readers,

We would like to share with you something that we share with each of our trust clients. It’s really important, our clients like it, and we think that your family can benefit from it as well. You may have seen this in the column before. We print it year after year. Consider it as a gentle reminder to get yourself organized. One of the most tedious tasks in administering a trust or an estate is finding the decedent’s estate planning documents and asset information. Frequently, children or even spouses have no idea where important documents are to be found.

After you pass away, the last thing you should want is for your loved ones to have to search through your belongings to find your will, stock certificates, or other important papers. They shouldn’t have to lift up your mattress to look for your safe deposit box key. They shouldn’t have to wait a month for new account statements to come in the mail so they can figure out where you invested your savings.

To avoid these difficulties, you should organize your personal and financial data. This is where the list comes in. Collect the information described in this list and give a copy to your children or close relatives, or keep it somewhere safe and let your family know where to find it. In case something happens to you, the List of Eleven is one of the best ways to ensure that your relatives can find all your vital records.

The List of Eleven Plus One

1. The location of your safe deposit box, if you have one, and the location of you’re the key.

2. Account numbers for all of your insurance policies, health, life, auto, home, burial, etc., and the names and addresses of your insurance agents.

3. A list of your stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and the name, address and phone number of your broker.

4. The names of the banks or savings and loans for each of your accounts, and the account numbers, or even copies of account statements.

5. The location of your cemetery plot or mausoleum niche.

6. The location of your will or trust and the name of your attorney.

7. Your credit card numbers.

8. Your Social Security Number.

9. The name and address of your mortgage lender, the account number, and the approximate amount of the outstanding debt.

10. The name and address of your accountant, and where your past income tax returns are located.

11. The type of memorial or funeral service you want.

11+1. These days, many people receive account statements and pay their bills online, leaving no paper trail at home. It’s important for your loved ones to be able to access your email and online accounts so they can wrap things up when you are gone. You may want to provide them with a list of your account numbers and passwords.

If you think this is too hard to do yourself, consider how hard it will be for your children to deal with after you pass away. Take a few minutes to get organized.

Len & Rosie

Dear Len & Rosie,

My husband of 45 years died recently. He has sizable savings and checking accounts at a local bank, all registered in his own name. I am not pleased with having to do business with that bank. I visited them after my husband’s death, and they were very rude to me. They would not give me my husband’s money, and they would not explain why. They just told me to go to a lawyer. I left in tears. Can’t I just transfer all of my husband’s accounts to my bank?

Ida

Dear Ida:

You do not have to keep the money in your husband’s old bank, and you should not have to do business with people who treat you poorly. You can put the money into your own bank accounts, as long as it is supposed to go to you. It all depends on the classification of the accounts as either community property, or the separate property of your husband, and whether or not your husband died with a will.

The money is probably community property. After a 45 year marriage, there is usually little separate property to be found. Everything acquired by either spouse during the marriage is assumed to be community property, except for property received as an inheritance or gift, which is separate property.

Let’s suppose the accounts are community property. Under the law, you already own half, no matter how the accounts are titled. If your husband had a will that leaves his estate to anyone other than you, you get half of the accounts, and your husband’s heirs get the other half. If your husband died without a will, then under the laws of intestate succession, you get everything, as your husband’s surviving spouse.

On the other hand, if the accounts were your husband’s separate property, and he has a will giving everything to his children, then all of the money will pass by the will, and you will get nothing. If the accounts are separate property, and your husband died with no will, then you will split the money with his children. If there is one child, you each will get one-half. If there are two or more children, you will get one-third and the children will split the rest.

That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting the money. If the accounts are worth less than $150,000 in total, then you can collect them 40 days after your husband’s death with a death certificate and a small estate declaration under California Probate Code section 13101. Many banks already have their forms for this. Since your husband’s bank is not one of them, you will probably have to pay a lawyer to draw up the declaration.

If the accounts are worth more than $150,000, then you can hire an attorney to file a spousal property petition to obtain a court order putting the accounts into your name. It will take about a month to file the petition, get a hearing date before the judge, and obtain a court order. If anything is to pass to your husband’s children, they’ll have to get it through probate.

Len & Rosie

Tillem McNichol & Brown