Understanding Death and Debt: What Your Family Needs to Know
May 31, 2024Season 4Episode 11
The Crotchety Old Men
What really happens to your debt when you die? Join Gary, PC, and George as they unravel the complexities of death and debt in our latest episode of the Crotchety Old Men Podcast. With our signature blend of humor and insight, we stress the necessity of a will and proper estate planning to keep things smooth for those left behind. Listen in for more wisdom, insights, and some good old-fashioned crotchety banter. Don't miss it!
What really happens to your debt when you die? Join Gary, PC, and George as they unravel the complexities of death and debt in our latest episode of the Crotchety Old Men Podcast. With our signature blend of humor and insight, we stress the necessity of a will and proper estate planning to keep things smooth for those left behind. Listen in for more wisdom, insights, and some good old-fashioned crotchety banter. Don't miss it!
The Crotchety Old man Podcast is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or a broker-dealer. All investment and financial opinions expressed by or on the Crotchety Old man Podcast are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up-to-date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur. Before you invest or make any investment-based decisions, consider your own personal circumstances. You should do your own research and seek advice from a financial professional.
Speaker 2:
Well, hello, hello again, and welcome to another episode of the Crotchety Old Men Podcast. Hi, I'm Gary Smith, one of the co-hosts of the Crotchety Old Men Podcast, and today in the studio we have the whole trio, my main man, pc over there.
Speaker 3:
What's up, though? Hey, what up though? How's everybody doing? It's a great Sunday, it's a great sunny morning. Yeah, man, looking forward to a great day myself.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. We got. The host with the most is down there, George Cromley. Talk to him, George.
Speaker 4:
What up, though, how we doing today.
Speaker 2:
Man shucks we doing so exceedingly well. If we keep talking, we going to sound like we bragging you know, what.
Speaker 4:
I like to say you know right.
Speaker 2:
We going to keep it crotchety, we got to keep it.
Speaker 4:
Crotchety, got to keep it crotchety, we got to keep it crotchety, got to keep it crotchety. Baby, there we go, there we go. Those are guys I know and love.
Speaker 2:
Yes, sir.
Speaker 4:
What's the topic of the day? Fellas, you know, back to finance. We just want to make sure that our audience knows that. You know, when you die, your debt doesn't necessarily die with you. So the subject for the day is what happens to your debt when you die, your debt doesn't necessarily die with you.
Speaker 2:
So the subject for the day is what happens to your debt when you die. Now you know, most of folks are here. You're talking about that. You're gonna say who cares? I don't care cuz I'm done, but according to what I'm hearing you say, it sounds like that's not necessarily so well, I think.
Speaker 4:
I think it's right for you as personally, yeah, you're right, when you're dead, you're done. But as far as your heirs and we've talked much about leaving a legacy and how important that is and if you think that your debt just turns into vaporware when you die, that's not true. So it's something again that we'd want to educate our audience on. The good news is, if you have a 401k or you have a life insurance policy which beneficiaries are named, then you're pretty much set. The creditors can't touch that money. But if you've got regular unsecured debt, you don't have a will. It has to go to probate. The first person that can step in is those creditors. They can file against the estate and whoever the executor is has the obligation to settle your debts.
Speaker 2:
Interesting. How would a?
Speaker 4:
creditor find out or know that you died, notification yeah, you're supposed your heirs, or whoever the executive is. Once it goes to probate, there is a notification through the local papers. It has to be filed for a certain number of days, so it's a public notice kind of a situation.
Speaker 3:
Okay, so what if a person doesn't do the notice? Say, for instance, you don't have anybody, you don't have a will that anybody knows of or expects and nobody does the notice, they don't publish anything in the law paper, or whatever. What happens then, do you think?
Speaker 2:
I like that. What do you think?
Speaker 4:
You're like what happened here.
Speaker 3:
I've seen situations where somebody doesn't have a will. Somebody steps in as an executor and now they make the pronouncement that this person is dead. But if a person dies, you wait for the death certificate and whatnot, and I guess the hospital is not going to tell anybody. So how does that work? Somebody snitch it, there you go.
Speaker 4:
I keep laughing because you're answering your own question, really Like you say okay, so if you don't have a will and you have stuff, it has to go to probate. That's the law. It has to go to probate. So in order to get things moving, you know, somebody has to open up the case with probate. You know other than that I don't know how you're going to divide stuff up, you know. So once you go to-.
Speaker 3:
Well, if you have 401k stuff like that, that's not probatable. If there's such a-.
Speaker 4:
Right, that's what I say. Anything with a beneficiary-.
Speaker 3:
But other assets, hard assets, are for sure.
Speaker 4:
Well, let's just talk about something simple. What about a bank account? You got a bank account. You don't have a beneficiary on it. You know, how do your heirs get to that money? They got to go to probate. The bank is not going to let you walk in and just say, hey, my dad died and you know, I got his account number here and I want to take this money out. They're not going to let you do that.
Speaker 3:
And now that goes back to the snitch.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, snitching and talking too much, shut up. Okay, number one, you don't go in the bank talking about my daddy just died. No, hell, no. Use the ATM card, fool, and take some money out first.
Speaker 3:
There you go, there you go.
Speaker 2:
Harry. Then you go in there talking about my daddy died and all that noise, because otherwise they're going to freeze that account number one to George's point and you're not going to get any money out of there until that thing is settled and all that stuff. Now point and you're not going to get any money out of there until that thing is settled and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:
Now, that's when your problems are going to begin. That's right, of course you know, and then if you get an attorney to parachute in at that time, then it's going to cost you more than it probably would have cost you if you just went on, got a will done and, uh, hopefully, a trust. It depend upon your assets and things, but I'm not attorney, neither are all the cohorts here, so don't you all be shooting us no messages and stuff because we are not giving legal advice here. We're just chopping it up about something that certainly needs to be addressed, because there's so many of us probably are unaware that, in the event of somebody dies, that those debts are still a responsibility of the heirs, and so that's one of the most important things, hopefully the takeaway that you get from this episode.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I mean, one of the assumptions is that everybody's prepared for those moments, and if we can encourage our audience in any way is make sure you know that you are prepared in those moments and what happens. Like I said, we're not legal experts, but what we do know is if you have a will, that will has to go to probate. If you have a trust, you can skip over probate. So whichever one you decide Now, if you have a will, it goes to probate. At least you have instructions as to what needs to happen. That will probably has an executor already named to it and it's easy to walk through the process. But if you don't have a will, you don't have any type of after death type of instructions. You're really cheating your family because you leave that family in such a disarray as to making decisions on your behalf that you could have, you know, talked about and devised before you. You know those circumstances Because obviously nobody knows the time and place. So here again the word planning comes into play at any age.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, here's something else too, to keep in in mind. Now I said jokingly about that atm, but let me tell you something if you're on a joint account or any account and that person is receiving, let's say, for social security, okay, and the social security checks comes on the third. But here it is the 15th and 16th you're playing in funeral arrangements and stuff and you're using that money and carrying on. Then the next month another check hits and you still haven't notified them. Now you can be getting yourself into a criminal situation called fraud. Okay, why? And so don't do that. That's what I tell you right now. That's advice. Don't do that. That's not legal advice, it's just common doggone sense. Do not do that. That's not legal advice, just common doggone sin. Do not do that.
Speaker 3:
And then you have the other case. George was talking about an executor, which would be attached to a will. Now, if there is no will, the court's going to assign an executive of the estate, which is a tad different. What that executive of that estate refers to is a person that's going to pay off all the debt. So you know people who jump in there trying to run stuff. They need to think about whether you want to sit down and pay all these debts. Have receipts, because it's an arduous process.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, go ahead, smitty.
Speaker 2:
No, I was just going to say, you know, before you get to the point of resolution or closing the estate and stuff, there's a lot of other steps you got to go through. And I think what George always says you know be prepared. Proper preparation will prevent a poor probate court situation, that's for sure.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I said, it's not fair to your heirs, you know, and leaving them in those kind of situations you don't want to have to. You know, do GoFundMe to. You know to bury you and you know all those kind of things. That's that's. You know. That's not what we're all about. You know we've got to be about our business this day and time. You know, with all the information that's flying from you know, left to right, you need that's flying from you know, left to right you need to be informed and you need to take care of the basics, you know, that's all it is, that's all it
Speaker 2:
comes really comes down to taking care of the basics. Yeah then, people know your wishes, absolutely yeah and uh. Hey, I think rita franklin who, um, we all know she had written out a will on a notepad or something that was found in the sofa, all right, and you know that was up upheld in court oh, yeah, oh yeah, I know people have written it on paper bag right, so my point being that there's no excuse for not having one right you know what I'm saying, no excuse or whatever.
Speaker 2:
You get a witness, you got it and it got. You know, got a witness to it and stuff like that, and you're in your right mind at the time and I would assume that most of y'all listening to this podcast is in your right mind right now. So make a note, if you haven't done it already. Make a note to write out your will all right after this podcast. Do your heirs a favor, do those people that you love a favor, so they don't have to guess about what your intentions were. They will know by the scribble that you put on it. If you write like most people I don't want to say most people, but if you write like some people, they're a print.
Speaker 3:
And that's what you're going to see most times, because most of these people that are going to school these days, they are not teaching them cursive.
Speaker 2:
That's another podcast PC.
Speaker 3:
Yes, it is. It is because there are a lot of legal ramifications by not being able to write in cursive as well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you know we try to keep a humorous format here, but the subject here matters is very serious, quite serious, Because when you talk about heirs and estate and things like that, again talk to my brothers and sisters out there. That's how we lose so much wealth. It's things that we work so hard to, you know, to accumulate, and it can be taken just like that, with the stroke of a pen.
Speaker 3:
Yes, sir.
Speaker 4:
All right, guys. Well, with that said, uh, we're gonna, obviously we done. Summed it up so, uh, which one of you guys got some words of uh wisdom to uh lead us home by well I thought he would never ask paul.
Speaker 2:
Then now that he's here, I know what I got, what's sitting right here.
Speaker 3:
Okay, let's do it, and it goes like this Attract what you expect, reflect what you desire, become what you respect and mirror what you admire. Oh my.
Speaker 1:
All right.
Speaker 2:
I like that Dr Clemens has spoken.
Speaker 3:
In the house, in the house.
Speaker 4:
There you go. And, as we always say, on the Crunchy, the Old man podcast. Hey, if you didn't know, if you didn't know, now you know. Take care, brother, be blessed, be safe.
