Taxation & Estate Planning

The Dirty Secret about Creditors and Claims in Probate

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

People are often upset to hear that a deceased person's debts must be paid as part of the probate process. But the dirty little secret is this: because of the laws, and the incompetence of creditors and their attorneys, you can often avoid many debts.

Let me give an example: I'm administering an estate. The decedent had a pretty big credit card balance (over $15,000) at the time of her death. There were probably 9 or 10 other debts that she owed at the time of her death (mostly unpaid utility bills).

Upon opening the probate estate, I sent notice directly to all known creditors. I also published general notice to creditors in the local newspaper. These notices are required under Illinois law, which also bars claims that are not filed within a certain period of time (usually six months after notice is published in the newspaper).

The notice period for this estate expired on February 23rd. Can you guess how many creditors filed claims prior to the expiration? Not a one, which means all of these claims are barred.

Special "praise" should be reserved for the law firm representing one of the creditors (the credit card company). My experience with them:

-I send them notice of my client's death.
-I am contacted by one of their representatives (not an attorney) about settling the debt.
-I ask the representative to fax me information about the debt (monthly statements), so that I can ascertain whether the debt is legitimate.
-I don't receive the information; when I call and tell the representative this, he becomes belligerent.
-The representative finally mails me some information about the debt, although not the information I requested. He also sends me copies of the fax cover sheets for the faxes he supposedly sent to me. Unfortunately, these sheets show that the representative was using the wrong fax number.
-This is the last I hear from the representative.

So now the claims period has expired, which means the credit card company won't be getting paid. And they have their attorneys to thank.

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on February 28, 2008 (boomark / email).