Understanding Your Finances after Death

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - April 24, 2013 - PRLog -- I want to share with you how I handled my finances when by husband passed away. When my husband died I had never even balanced a checkbook before in my life. I never paid attention to any of the household finances because I knew my husband would always be there to take care of everything. How am I going to pay my bills now that my husband is gone? It never even crossed my mind that I would ever have to do it on my own. Now every chance I get I tell everyone I know to make sure that you understand exactly what you owe and to whom. Take turns each month with your spouse paying the bills. I wish I had taken the time to learn. - http://thegoodnewsis.com/Finances_after_Death.html

I wasn’t even sure who I owed money to. I looked around our home office for anything that might help me. I found a flash drive on his desk and decided to see what was on it. The good news is there was a calendar that showed all of our bills. I made a list of all of the accounts and called each one and explained that my husband passed away and I needed to create new online accounts, change the email address and contact information and most importantly did I owe them any money? - http://thegoodnewsis.com

If you aren’t as lucky as I was and have no idea who you owe money to make a list of all of the bills that you know about. If your spouse was organized look for copies of bills or if you have access to his email go through and see what emails he received and from whom. The bills that most people don’t think about are homeowners insurance, homeowners association fees, car insurance and information about your mortgage and any home equity loans, student loans, etc.

The good news is if you miss any creditors chances are they will be understanding when you tell them your story. I got many phone calls from creditors that I didn’t know I had accounts with wondering why I haven’t paid their bills. They were all very understanding and promised me that my credit would not be affected by the late payments.

I felt as though I was getting a handle on my finances for the first time since my husbands death and then I starting getting medical bills and ambulance bills. I found out some very interesting information through my research. I was not responsible for any accounts that were only in my husband’s name. The medical bills I received had my husband’s name on them as well as several credit card accounts that were his alone. When I was contacted by the hospital and credit cards companies I explained that my husband passed away and while they tried to talk me into paying the bills, I explained that I am not legally responsible for the payment of his debts.

Many people don’t know this and they pay off all of the spouses debt. Some of the companies asked for a copy of the death certificate but the majority of them took my word for it.  

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