Name Change? (was I misinformed?)?
I live in North Myrtle Beach (horry county) South carolina. and today i called up the local court and asked if they do name changes. They told me they did not, and gave me the number to the county government office. and i asked them if they did name changes/ carried name change forms. and the lady told me , No, that i have to do it thorugh an attorney. that doesnt seen correct to me, because tons of people have it as easy as just going down to the court and filing out some papers, name change forms, there self. i was hoping on saving some money and just doing this myself, instead of having to find an attorney and pay alot more. i was wandering, if this was true. do i really have to do this through an attorney? and how much would it cost to do this through an attorney??
What happens if beneficiaries names are misspelled on a will?
I am asking this question for my Mother. Her and my step-father had a will made up some years ago stating that if they died at the same time, the estate would be split between all 4 children. However, she recently discovered that the last name on 3 of the children are misspelled (one letter is missing and the 4th child has a different last name because of 2nd marriage). If there are mispellings and nothing is corrected, does this make the will invalid and the estate would be then settled by the state? If so, would the state likely just divide the estate equally anyway?
What happens to debt when someone has committed suicide?
'A' is partially right... whomever cosigned the loan is screwed, but, the next of kin usually is not. If the person is a single adult, then after selling everything the dead person owned, the debt is paid off as best as possible, and and remaining debt is just a loss to whomever issued the debt. If the person is a minor or is married, then the parents/spouse would inherit most of the debt as far as I'm aware... but not all. For example, I'm pretty sure I would not inherit my wife's student loan debt. The government is going to just have to take that as a loss. I think I'd probably still be stuck with her credit card debt, even though I didn't sign up for those... if I understand correctly, I could try to go to court and get rid of that debt if I can prove I didn't know she had them... but otherwise, I'll have to pay. Considering both our names are on the mortgage, I'd just become the only person responsible for the mortgage if she dies (however, I hope she doesn't, considering we're only 8 or so years away from paying off our mortgage). Any relative who is not the parent/legal guardian or spouse of the dead person, will not be responsible for the debt in any way, as far as I know. I think that holds true in almost every country. So, if you're just a brother/sister, aunt/uncle, cousin, etc, then don't worry!
What is the difference between a personal representative of a will and a guardian/trustee of a will?
Personal representative (executor) is responsible for making sure the overall provisions of the will are carried out. A guardian named in a will has the responsibility to care for the children or other dependents left behind. A trustee named in a will has the responsibility to manage the money left behind for minor children or other dependents left behind.