|
Question about closing an Estate in New York City
1) All known creditors have been paid
2) All assets distributed
3) Inventory filed, no estate taxes needed, but too large to be
processed as "small estate".
4) More than 7 months have passed since administrator was appointed.
5) All tax forms taken care of.
6) Beneficiaries will sign receipt/release forms.
7) Minimal amount is left in checking account to handle last minute
expenses, and to wait for the tax refunds, which will be distributed
then and the account closed.
Administration was done without a lawyer (its been really pretty simple
up to this point).
There was a financial dispute between the HMO and the in-network
hospital over the final balance. The financial officer at the hospital
where she died has told us not to worry about it since it was between
them and the insurance company and that they weren't going to try
collect the final balance from us. She wouldn't, however, put that in
writing in the form of a release. No bill was ever issued.
What do we have to do to close and protect the estate and the
Administrator from any future claims such as the hospital changing its
mind. The available options seem to be
a) Formal accounting with decree
b) Informal accounting with decree
c) Informal accounting without decree
d) Just file receipt and releases.
The people at the Surrogate Court in Queens were no help at all.
It costs hundreds of dollars and a fair amount of paperwork for the
decree. Does having a decree mean that no future claims can be brought.
If that's the case, than its probably worth it, right? Can we just do
the receipt and releases now, and no future claim would be allowed
anyway because its been more than 7 months. Can we just do the receipt
and releases now, and the informal accounting, and only ask for a
decree in the event a late claim is filed?
I could use a basic understanding of what would be required for a
claimant to prevail at this point.
|
| |
| |
|
