Re: Maryland - Estate Question

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 17:31:57 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alan) wrote:

>Estate question in Maryland
>
>My mother-in-law recently passed-away.  My wife (who is deceased) is
>named in the will as personal representative and listed in the living
>trust as trustee.  My mother-in-law told me that since I am the
>husband of the designated personal representative / trustee, I would
>automatically take over these roles and that the legal documents
>didn't have to be modified.

Not true.

If no successor trustee is named in the agreement of trust, you may
have to go to court to have a successor appointed.

>My mother-in-law didn't have any debt (other than taxes, possibly). 
>All of her assets were either
>1)     Listed in her living trust
>2)     jointly owned by me
>or
>3)     my children were listed as beneficiaries.
>
>Since there are no contested assets, do I have to open an estate or go
>through the probate process?  

There are sometimes advantages to probating a will, such as notice to
creditors in order to limit the statute of limitations for claims
against the estate.

However, my usual attitude is not to probate a will unless there are
assets in the name of the decedent that cannot be administered or
disposed of without probate.

>If I don't open an estate and become the
>personal representative, will I still be able to submit her tax
>returns?  When she was alive, I had power of attorney, but that ceased
>with her death.

The IRS is fairly liberal about who can file a final income tax
return.  See Publication 559, "Survivors, Executors, and
Administrators," which can be downloaded from www.irs.gov


**Dan Evans
**I post information, not advice.