Should my sister, who was named as the sole beneficiary, share the asset with other names in the will?
No. You may think it is not fair, but for whatever reason, the person who died had decided to make her the sole beneficiary. It was their assets, their decision.. regardless of how you may feel about it.I do understand where you are coming from. When my father wrote his will, he was fairly ill, and assumed he would not live long. He was wrong. He lived for another decade, and in that time his estate nearly quadrupled.When he made his will, I was struggling, and had just been forced to medically retire on a limited income. All of my siblings earned 6 figures. Dad felt that if any of us would “need” the money - it would be me. So his will named me as the sole beneficiary. If I pre-deceased him (which at that time seemed possible) then it would be divided equally among the surviving children.When he died, my siblings were … not happy.But he did that on his own. I lived in Texas. All of them lived within an hour of him in Seattle. And yet - I was the one he spoke to regularly and who saw him most frequently. I was totally unaware of the amount of his estate, and really didn’t think anything much about it. I assumed what he had 10 years earlier had been gradually getting smaller as he used the funds for his retirement.Should I have shared the inheritance with my siblings? They thought so.Our father did not. And I respected his wishes.
Is estate planning the same as a will?
No, not necessarily. Some assets do not get inherited through a will and those need to be accounted for by the person planning their estate (which is, for most intents, all the things that will go to someone else upon death). Some examples of things that usually will not be handled by the will (even if they are written into the will):1. Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship. This is property you co-own with someone else (possibly a spouse by default in some jurisdictions*) that will pass to them upon your death without the help of a will. 2. Life Insurance Proceeds. Within your policy, there will be a way to assign who these go to without the help of a will. 3. Bank Accounts. Most of these have "Transfer on Death" provisions so you can assign these to a person upon your death. 4. Retirement Plans. These will let you designate a person to transfer to upon your death.*In some jurisdictions, you may also own real property by default with a spouse as a Tenancy by the Entireties. Upon the death of one spouse, where property is owned this way, the other spouse's interest in the property immediately goes to the surviving spouse---no will needed!
I have been left money in a will.Can I borrow against this future inheritance?
If the person has not died yet, you can't. If the person has died and the will is going through probate, it is very difficult to borrow money, but it can be done in rare cases. I would recommend against it though. See the links. Lenders are very wary to lend money on pending inheritances. You may think you are inheriting half of Aunt Petunia's house. Then the bank says she still owes money on it. Then her credit card company puts a lien on the house for $20,000 dollars. The hospital and the funeral director want paid, too. Suddenly you are inheriting a lot less than you thought. Because of problems like this, lenders are often scared to lend money.
What happens to a persons bank account when they die? How does the bank know they have passed away?
If a bank account shows no activity, other than direct deposits, the bank will check on the person who owns the account. For some banks it is six months, others wait a year. They will attempt to call the person, write them a letter, etc. If they can not confirm the person is still alive they will contact whoever it is that is making direct deposits, such as the military, Social Security, the VA, etc. Eventually they put it all together and find out when the person died. Then the agency that was doing the direct deposits gets their money back, any next of kin known will be contacted about the account. Only if no one can be found will the money be turned over to the state for further investigation. Then bank does not get to keep the money.
Everything goes into estate account?
I am the executrix of my mother's will. I was closing out bank accounts today before putting everything into the estate account. At one bank, the check was made out to my uncle, who was the beneficiary on that account. The banker who helped me was questioned about this by another banker, who thought the check should have been made out to the estate. The first woman answered that the manager instructed her to make it out to the beneficiary. I took that as the correct answer because I wouldn't know either way but now I'm not so sure about it. A tax return will have to be filed for the estate so in order to have complete and correct records, I'm thinking I ought to put that money into the estate account and then give it to my uncle once the account is closed. Correct? Or can I legally give it to him now?
My father left me money in a brokerage account before he died. I pay taxes for it, but he never gave me access to the account. How do I get access to the account and take money out of it?
Take the death certificate to the brokerage location and file to have the account put into your name. You can do this if your father has put you down as the beneficiary. With the death certificate they should be able to reveal if there was one and if it was put into your name. Otherwise, the money will go into his estate which must be processed through probate court. The Executor of the Will cannot not release the money to you until it has been finalized through Probate court and all debts are paid. It should state in the Will that the money is left to you. Good luck.