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<p>Both of my banks (large regional banks) have stopped doing this… they will do “signature guarantee”, but not “medallion signature guarantee”. I have to do to my attorney for this now! :(</p>
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<p>Yes, you have the basic gist of it. The federal gift/estate law allows you annually to give away the current 14K amount without filing any gift tax return, and without paying any gift taxes. If you give one person 15K during the year, the 1K excess theoretically gets recorded (somewhere) as a reduction of your $5Million + lifetime exemption. (You get the option of paying the gift tax now, which would preserve the full $5Million.)</p>
<p>The only thing to keep in mind is that these things are subject to change everytime that Washington needs more money. The $5million is a new number as of this year. It had been rising since 2000, but was scheduled to expire and revert to only $1M, but the fiscal cliff deal ended up raising it.</p>
<p>axw: Any money that goes to people POD is inheritance. Money coming from that account that was joint I’m learning now is a gift. Initially all I thought that I was doing was dividing the money according to mom’s wishes but in the case of this particular account it seems it is a gift from me, at least in the eyes of the law. The legal outlook and the personal outlook are different but I understand that. In the case of this estate those are the only 2 options.</p>
<p>The will is yet another gray area as it was written and filed in a state other than the one we both lived in at the time of her death. That however seems less critical because I don’t think there are any legal property decisions to be made. She made them all for us. The division of this account in question as I see it is more of a moral than legal question except where taxes are concerned.</p>
<p>The actual filing of the will takes place after her death… I am saying you may have missed a step there, based on your state’s laws. Another thing to ask the attorney about.</p>
<p>While the OP may not be currently in danger of reaching 5M+ in gifting/estate, it should be noted that she may leave an estate to her children which is higher than the estate tax exemption at that time. She could have real estate that increases incredibly, they could even lower the exempt amount.</p>
<p>If I were her, I would not want to use up any of MY exemption now.</p>
<p>Or she could win the lottery and need that exemption. You never know. :D</p>
<p>^^^no worries here, I like the sound of that :)</p>
<p>Don’t forget your buddies on CC who have given you sound advice if it happens!</p>
<p>^^^^absolutely, it all started here!</p>
<p>Lol…well I did not win the lottery tonight.</p>
<p>“Bay, I think the OP can distinguish their situation from the more complex ones like mine – but my advice stands. No one should EVER undertake being executor for an estate without at least consulting an attorney in the state where the deceased lived.”</p>
<p>I agree 100%. My situation with being executor of my mom’s estate would have been much more difficult had I not had an attorney. I did as much as I could myself, an it was a lot. But the attorney helped in so many matters. Even the relatives bugging me for money didn’t argue about having an attorney.</p>
<p>I have not been an executor but I am a lawyer. I would absolutely use a lawyer for advice even for small amounts–you can do the legwork stuff yourself. </p>
<p>Lawfuture, you’ve gotten great advice and it’s good for all of us to bear this stuff in mind but I DO have to laugh that of all the things you are balking at it is the $45 newpaper ad. (smile)</p>
<p>^^I’m sorry if it sounds that way, I’m not really balking, I’m more concerned about having to field phone calls then the ad itself. If doing this is a requirement then that is fine. The thing is, it seems that this is what needs to be done to be able to disburse funds to those named in a will as I understand it. In this case with beneficiaries named on every account and bond there are no funds left to disburse (except for the funds that are “mine” because I owned the account jointly with her.) This dibursement is my decison rather than a legal one. I do plan to discuss this with an attorney but I’m away from home for a couple of weeks. The thing that I don’t understand is that if this account is now mine and all of her other funds belong to the designated beneficiaries who is responsible for paying debts and with what funds?</p>
<p>[What</a> Happens to a Joint Account When an Owner Dies?](<a href=“http://wills.about.com/od/howtoavoidprobate/a/jointownerdies.htm]What”>What Happens to a Joint Account When One of the Owners Dies?)</p>
<p>At issue is that your mom didn’t leave an estate sufficient to cover debts. It gets complicated-</p>
<p>“The surviving person who was listed on the joint bank accounts with him (wife, siblings) are not the new and sole owners of the accounts. The money does not go into his probate estate but if a creditor files a claim against the estate for debts, taxes, and expenses of administration AND there is not sufficient assets else where in the estate to pay such debts, then funds can be taken out of the bank account to pay those debts, taxes, and expenses of administration which were not covered by assets already in the estate.”</p>
<p>You have t learn the laws in the appropriate state.</p>
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<p>There won’t be any phone calls. These are tiny ads way in the back of the paper than normal people never see.</p>
<p>OP … I wanted to thank you for starting this thread … as a future executor I have learned a TON thanks to your question!</p>
<p>Google the legal notices section of your paper. Boring small notices mostly with case numbers.</p>