Leonard L. Shober's Answers

Do I have to name a particular funeral home when I open an irrevocable burial account?

This is the bank's policy. Unfortunately there is no uniformity regarding these accounts. Some banks require the participation of a funeral director and funeral home and some banks do not. Some banks have very carefully crafted agreements but most do not. If you are opening this account to safeguard mom's assets in the event of a nursing home confinement, be careful as the terms of a burial reserve account should be consistent with the requirements of Medical Assistance. Opening an...

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How long does it take for Pennsylvania to issue a tax clearance letter for an estate?

The Official Assessment Notice is what you are looking for from the Dept of Revenue. This is usually out to the Executor in a couple of months at the most. They were getting backlogged for a while there but we seem to be getting them pretty quickly. Now if you paid the tax in response to an invoice prompted by a bank account or other reportable assets and did not have a probate estate or complete an inheritance tax return (PA1500), you will not receive this Notice. I could not tell by...

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Can Pennsylvania Medicaid lay claim to life insurance benefits paid to surviving children?

I think that the estate recovery issues have been addressed. Life insurance is not subect to estate recovery. However, if the insurance was not reported on a Medical Assistance application, there may be an overpayment issue which could require that the proceeds be paid back to the state. Therefore, it is important to list the policy as an asset on the application. Not clear from your question whether you are the owner or whether mom is the owner. If you are the owner and you are insuring...

Do i have to sell my mother house if she goes into an assistant living facility?

The house does not have to be sold. Assisted living is a private arrangement not covered by medical assistance in PA as yet. For medical assistance it is exempt so long as mom intends to return. The difficulty in these situations is how do you maintain the house while paying the expense of assisted living at the same time, which can be significant. You may want to look into enhanced pension if either of your parents served in the military during wartime. This may help you somewhat. I...

Parent dies intestate, has house full of nice stuff but no real cash assets or real estate - nothing to claim. Who gets what?

Since your father was not married, then your brother and any other issue of your father would share equally in the estate. You mentioned he was single so I would check the intestate statute carefully to make sure as to the rights of his issue. The personal property should be divided equally among the beneficiaries after costs of administration and inheritance taxes are paid. I would suggest that you have an appraisal done immediately and perhaps consider probating this estate for purposes...

Only asset after death was a joint money market account. does the will have to go through probate?

No. Only probate if there is an asset that requires legal authority to transfer. Joint property transfers automatically by operation of law so authority is not necessary. Another examply of property passing outside of probate is life insurance, annuities and IRAs, these pass by operation of contract and no probate is required unless the beneficiaries are not available.

Attorney Estate Administration Fee

The attorney fee must be reasonable. If you are looking at percentages, you might want to reference the "Johnson Estate" case from Chester County PA which is sometimes used as a test of the resonableness of both executor and attorney fees. That case sets out a table of decreasing percentages on both probate and non-probate property that arrives at a reasonable executor and attorney fee . You have not provided enough data for me to determine whether a 2% fee is reasonable per Johnson....

Proceeds of a home auction (not the home itself) - do proceeds need to be listed as assets toward the nursing care home?

If home is listed at the time of admission and parent is applying for Medical Assistance, this has to be disclosed. If sold after admission, it has to be used for patient care like any other asset. If parent is on Medical Assistance, the CAO must be notified about this change in circumstance (lump sum receipt) within 7 days. Children cannot take anything that is not agreed to well in advance such as promissory note or their share of a jointly held property or remainder interest. All...

P.S. to question - if both parents went to nursing home with 70,000 - wouldn't home have to be sold to pay for it when money gon

Nursing home costs are approximately $250 per day. When two parents are in nursing care, they are treated as single individuals. They can probably keep around $10,000 to $16000 between them and burial accounts can be established to protect another $15,000. Therefore, they will need to consider applying for Medical Assistance pretty soon. This is an time consuming project for both parents that we have seen take up to a year in some cases. If this process is not done correctly in PA...

Am I responsible for any of my mother's debts if I claim her as a dependent on my income taxes

Rhode Island is one of several states with a "filial responsibility" law - Rhode Island Gen. Laws 15-10-1 to 15-10-7 (2000); R.I. Gen. Laws 40-5-13 to 40-5-18 (1997). I am not personally familiar with Rhode Island statutes or law but if it is like Pennsylvania law, the children may be held responsible for medical expenses of indigent parents. In PA this law was put in place to stop children from "dumping" parents in nursing homes and running off with their assets. Naturally, the law has...

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