Deceased credit card debt...
Date: Thu, 02/12/2009 - 12:42
There is a good amount of credit card debt: ~14k
There are also a good amount of assets to the estate, which include about 225k in retirement funds, and 250k in real estate.
There is little cash to settle the debts, and I have a strong desire to keep the homes, and touch little of the retirement.
I am already dealing with West Asset Management and DCM Services. I have told them she died without a will, provided the file number for her estate at the clerks office. Neither are willing to negotiate much of the debt. One has offered $500 off and the other $1000.
I have to pay taxes on mom's income this past year. What money we have needs to go towards the funeral bill and taxes. Whats left I will give to the credit cards. That will probably leave me short about 6-7k.
what can I do to successfully negotiate the debt down more? What can they do if I decide to drag this out as long as possible (up to a year for the estate to be closed before I have to file and extension)?
Do I have to tell them anything about the estate? They have both asked about the assets of the estate, and my response has been that I have not done the 90 day inventory and I dont have that. Do I even need to provide that to them, or should I refer them to the clerk's office? I do what want to do their work for them. I want to make it as painful as possible to collect the full amount, in hoping this will convince them to negotiate the debt down for an immediate settlement.
Ideas/thoughts?
from what I remember, the only thing you HAVE to provide them is
from what I remember, the only thing you HAVE to provide them is a death certificate; however, it's been a while since I worked in banking, so my information might be out of date.
From what I remember, you or anyone else in your family are in no way personally responsible for the credit card debts of your mother. Of course, the credit card company will attempt to tell you otherwise. If there is no money in the estate to pay them, then that's the end of the story as far as the credit cards go.
Since there is property and retirement money, however, this might be a completely different story. I'll bump this topic up and see if someone a little more in the know will answer.
Well, the thing is, they are legally entitled to a portion of th
Well, the thing is, they are legally entitled to a portion of the estate since the estate is solvent. My hope is to make them want to settle, rather than attempting to force us to sale off one retirement plan on order to do so. We wont be selling property.
So, bottom line, if they stick it out, they'll get 100% of the debt. I would just assume they not.
LOL! Yeah, I can't say as I blame you. Was one of those ca
LOL!
Yeah, I can't say as I blame you.
Was one of those cards a Citibank card, by any chance? It would definitely be a cold day in "heck" before they saw anything remotely close to the full amount, as far as I would be concerned.
The retirement should be free and clear assuming that your mothe
The retirement should be free and clear assuming that your mother listed a benificiary, which she would be required to do. This money will go to them free of any claim by the credit card. It became their propery the second your mother died. The house could also be free and clear depending on how the title is set up. The only thing that would be theirs to claim is any cash that is on hand or in the bank once again depending on how the account is held. Talk to a lawyer and see if what they have to say.
IF it as I said then you can tell the CC that they are SOL unless they take what you offer, if anything.
bttt. Really, there is no one that can shed some light on the
bttt.
Really, there is no one that can shed some light on these issues?
COntact a NACA attorney. You can likely get a free consult. ww
COntact a NACA attorney. You can likely get a free consult. www.naca.net
I would try and find a good estate attorney. With those assets,
I would try and find a good estate attorney. With those assets, you may have some substantial obligations and sound legal advice is very important. What state are you in?
I actually wanted to follow up so everyone could know what happe
I actually wanted to follow up so everyone could know what happened...
I found the lawyer dealing with creditors very unhelpful. They unfortunately dont know enough about estate laws...
I found the attorney with estate laws very unhelpful. The unfortunately dont know enough about some of the credit laws...
They all knew enough to execute basic guidance, which was 'pay the creditors,' but to illustrate the divide, the attorney dealing with credit law stated that I had a "legal obligation as administrator of the estate to settle the debts." I told her, that to my knowledge, that didnt mean I couldnt legally make the creditors jump through every hoop possible to get any money and to draw it out as long as possible. Bottom line, she wasn't seeing it.
So I handled it all myself...
I started with dealing with West Asset. I refused any of their early offers to reduce the debt by about 10% to settle. When they called, I politely told them that there were too many outstanding creditors ahead of them, that cash "on hand" was short, and that the likelihood of them getting anywhere to the original amount was unlikely. It took about 3 months, but I eventually asked them if they would consider a "Pro-rata share" of the estate based on money on hand. I am skipping a lot of crucial details here, but they settled for about 35% of the debt. This is on an estate that had real estate valued over 300k free and clear and 200k in retirement money disbursed to my brother and I.
DCM services was not so easy. I could have probably played them game and won, but at this point, with 2 of the 3 major creditors settling for pennies on the dollar, it wasnt worth waiting another year to get them to settle. I got them to reduce the debt about 20%.
Estate closed, and I shaved off about 7k of the outstanding credit card debt. We got issued 1099s for forgiveness of debt, and paid federal and state taxes of about $600.