Deceased Tax Payer

[Bjorn]

A taxpayer died with her only asset as an IRA of 100,000 which has two stated beneficiaries. There is zero other money. What is the best method to pay the final estate bills of their money? Can each put some money into an estate checking, not pay the bills, Thank you in advance.

Mahalo,

Bjorn

[veritas]

What kind of bills?

Who is responsible to pay them?

[Koss]

Dead Client

Equally imporant is the question of how you are going to get paid...

LOL

Agree with the post above...

The beneficiaries of the IRA may not be legally liable for the debts of the decedent.

And depending on state law and some other variables, the funds in the IRA may pass directly to the beneficiaries, kind of like life insurance proceeds. The creditors of the estate may have no legal right to that money.

The beneficiaries can certainly choose to pay some debts if they want to. They may be personally liable for bills presented by the funeral director. If they personally made funeral arrangements, such as choosing a casket, they probably signed something accepting financial responsibility for the funeral...

Gotta check with a lawyer on this one.