Question
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
Or at least that was the state my aunt lived in.....
When she passed away, she had enough money in her checking and savings accounts to cover her funeral expenses and last rent. I got named "special administrator" as her estate was too small to require probate.
My question is that she had a state pension of about $60,000 which she designated to go equally to two nephews and a niece (by name)
She had outstanding credit card bills of about $2000 - do the people who inherited the money from the pension have any obligation to pay the credit card debt - or is the credit card company s.o.l.?
Answer
If the pension account was, as I suspect, exempt from claims of creditors, the creditors of the estate would be out of luck if there were named beneficiaries of the pension account. IF however the were to be paid to her estate, then the estate owes the bills. One more thing. The credit card company will probably go away when the facts are explained, but if they do not, and have any basis for the claim, get a lawyer to assist you or consider making a compromise as the potential for expensive hassle is probably not worth $2,000.