My Brothers Estate

[JethroB]

Eddie, so sorry to hear.

A lot of good advice so far. I was amazed at what the funeral home accomplished with my parents passing. Somehow most all state and federal agencies were notified through the process or by them.

I would also at some point check Texas’s unclaimed property website for abandoned bank accounts or other property. Also any former employers that might hold retirement or pension funds. I recently applied for SS and SS sent me a letter suggesting I contact a former employer that once held a 401k account.

Texas' Official Unclaimed Property Site - Texas Comptroller - Texas.gov

claimittexas.org

 

[JasperFrank]

Ophcrack

Ophcrack is a Windows Password cracker based on Rainbow Tables

ophcrack.sourceforge.io

It will take less then 8 minutes to crack the admin password.

Reading the OPs first post made my blood boil, as I have been through just this same sort of thing. Though, for me, property was still somewhat inexpensive at the time. Maybe it is worth it to be involved, these days.

Taking care of a Toxic Relative's estate can hurt you. In ways you may might never have imagined.

Its your time you are spending to "fix" things. In my case, I would have been better off, just walking away from all of it. Everyone came out of the woodwork, demanding money or property owed. And not just a few. The sad part, is I partly knew these people. So they weren't total strangers. Yet, they all had a grievance, and to some, I had to be the bad guy. Like, "I don't care what he said, do you have a receipt or proof?" People seemed to have had a claim on everything.
I lost time at work, which would have compensated far more then the estate ever did. And now I'm in the chain of title for a few things, that can comeback at me at any time... forever.

Sorry for your situation, and if you care for your brother. Did he care for you?

 

[Streetcar]

Re: Soc Sec: The monthly payments lag by a month. So for example, if someone died in November, they should still get a check for Nov & Dec.

Social security can be paid in advance or arrears. If paid in advance they want the money back for month of death

 

[MossRoad]

Counseling sounds like good advice. It helped me a lot when I got divorced. But so did everyone on here that reached out and commented when I posted it on here.

I didn't think about having his mail forwarded. Heck, I havent found his mailbox yet. I'll do that today for sure. I'm guessing it's at the beginning of his street.

Thank you

When my dad was in his final weeks, I had his mailing address changed to mine. It made things a lot easier, as I didn't have to go over to his house daily or pick up things at the post office. It also helped after he passed in that a lot of his investments that we didn't know about would show up in the mail well after a year after he passed.

A bit of levity in a tough time... Both my father and I had subscriptions to National Geographic magazine. Several months after I changed his mailing address, I got a letter from National Geographic thanking ME for being a valued member since 1949... I was born in 1961.

Good luck Eddie. While it's a trying time, I've seen your timely and well-thought out actions on projects over the years. Treat it like one of your projects and it'll all work out well, I'm sure.

 

[ultrarunner]

One small note and that is review documents sent out by third parties like funeral homes.

Funeral home transposed zip code when reporting my father’s death and to this day all the public records say dad died in Texas… a place he had never been.

I tried to correct but learned it was futile…

 

[duffer]

Social security can be paid in advance or arrears. If paid in advance they want the money back for month of death

Not doubting you, but I've never heard of SS being paid in advance. My only option was the qualifyer was the month of my birth and they paid a month late.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Sorry to hear about your brother Eddie.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

If it's a relatively inexpensive gun safe I have heard that they can sometimes be opened with a rare earth magnet. You can probably find videos on Youtube that show how.

Get the numbers off of it. If it was registered to him, the manufacturer will tell you how to get it open. They will require a copy of the death certificate.

 

[EddieWalker]

The Neurologist called this morning and confirmed that there is no brain activity. When his heart stopped for 15 minutes on Sunday, that was the end for him, but they have been keeping him alive with machines to make sure there wasn't any activity.

Today at 1pm, they will turn off the machines.

I didn't expect it to hurt like this. We fought, we argued, we disagreed, but we also spent a lot of time out hunting ducks together in the marsh, working on each other vehicles, fixing things and just sitting in the garage, having a beer. I'm already miss him.

 

[newbury]

Hang in there Eddie, focus on the good times.