News and debt filter: Can somebody tell me why it was necessary to have a fundraiser to pay US medical bills for a deceased person? In the USA, if you die with debts greater than the total sum of your assets, your estate is generally liquidated in probate, right? Medical debt collectors can't go after your family for debts they didn't incur... [more inside]
posted by thewalrus on Jan 23, 2012 - 11 answers

URGENT!!! If two people have their name on a bank account and one of them dies, is it acceptable for the other person to continue writing cheques from that account? [more inside]
posted by wutangclan on Aug 6, 2011 - 24 answers

How can we get into the apartment where my mother-in-law lived? My mother-in-law, Phyllis, was found dead of a heart attack in her apartment a week ago today. We live across town. There is no known will. We do not have a key to the apartment, nor does anyone else except the apartment management. We would like to enter the apartment to see if there's a will and to start going through her belongings. The manager says she can't let us in because the "management corporation" won't let her. We've tried calling the people above her, but they won't return our calls. We hired a lawyer. He has stressed the urgency of the situation to the apartment management, but they don't seem to be in a hurry to resolve this. What can we do? [more inside]
posted by lukemeister on Feb 4, 2010 - 33 answers

Both of my wife's parents died. Her dad first in January, now her mom in September. My wife is the oldest child. No will was left. What do we do? [more inside]
posted by Bageena on Nov 18, 2009 - 24 answers

If person A leaves something of value to person B in their will, with the stipulation that it be left to person C if B should predecease A, what happens if A & B die semi-simultaneously [say both are in the same car accident] and it can't be determined who died first? [more inside]
posted by HiroProtagonist on Oct 13, 2009 - 13 answers

Someone died. Does her family have to keep paying the mortgage payments? Does interest keep accruing? Can they rent it out during this period? There was no will. (This is in California.) [more inside]
posted by salvia on Jul 22, 2007 - 9 answers

When you die, what specific information and instructions (beyond user names and passwords) would you need to leave for your heirs to deal with your email accounts, web hosting accounts, domain names, affiliate accounts, forum memberships, mailing list memberships, etc?
posted by redneck_zionist on Nov 17, 2005 - 25 answers