Jack’s mother’s death hit him hard, but now he is ready to figure out what he must do to tie up her financial affairs. First, he visited her safe deposit box with a certified copy of her death certificate, a document prepared for him by his attorney, and the safe deposit box key he found in her files.
Together with a bank officer, he found her last Will in the box and also noticed there were other papers he was not allowed to look at.
And he tried to figure out where her bank accounts and other assets were. It was not easy. She didn’t believe in putting all her eggs in one basket, so she had many accounts at different banks and held many stocks.
As he worked through the details of taking care of her estate, he learned some things that she could have done ahead of time to make the process easier, more private and less expensive. Some of them were small things and other big, but they added up to a promise to himself that he would put his hard lessons to use and plan ahead to spare his wife and children the same trouble.
In the next weeks, we will follow Jack through some of the things he had to do and troubles he learned he could prevent with good estate planning. For expert advice about your estate planning options, call our office at 436-1996 for an appointment. ã2012 Gruber Law Office, Ltd.