I just completed administering a trust I had prepared for one of my clients. Even though the decedent had run up a mountain of credit card debt before she died, the process was smooth.
It turned out she had been buying nearly everything the home shopping networks sold her. There were stacks of credit card bills.
I used a court process to force the credit card companies to prove that the debts were valid. From experience, I know that creditors rarely complete this paperwork correctly. While this added some extra steps, it saved the estate a substantial amount of money.
In the end, $56,321.12 of credit card debt didn’t have to be paid. Only one credit card company submitted the paperwork correctly and received payment of $8,422.36.
I also helped the heirs find a reputable professional to sell all the items that had been purchased. The sale brought a significant amount of cash back into the estate.
Who knew someone could spend so much and keep it hidden from their children?
Unfortunately, as many people age, they lose the ability to make sound decisions. This kind of decline is easier to hide than memory loss. Perhaps if my client had accepted help sooner, things could have been different.
By the time we completed all the paperwork, the estate actually ended up with more money than when we started. When the heirs picked up their checks, every one of them thanked me.
If you’ve recently lost a loved one, let me help you handle the paperwork and protect your family’s inheritance. (Results vary, but so far this strategy has saved 100% of my clients’ money.)
