So I met TC’s son this morning – he showed up a few hours before I expected, and that’s good because thunder is booming like maybe it means it this afternoon – a very friendly and polite young man. He showed up with an acquaintance from the state where TC actually lived, who had already bought that little Kubota backhoe. So we got the big trailer hitched to his truck – I gathered they’re planning to fix the rat-chewed connector in town – and got the backhoe loaded and chained down. I spoke to TC’s son on behalf of a neighbor who’d like to buy TC’s batteries, which will otherwise sit there and deteriorate uselessly.
I basically ran down the list of items we needed to talk about in light of the change of ownership, then was mentally signing off as property caretaker when TC’s son noted that I’d been getting automatic checks from TC’s bank in the amount of $50 a month but that would stop since social security had frozen the bank account*, and so it might be a couple of months before he could make other financial arrangements but would I mind staying on as caretaker?
Well no, I didn’t mind at all – in fact I rather minded TC dying out from under me, a fact I hope I phrased more diplomatically than that. Either way, no problem. Then he slipped me some cash to pre-pay the next couple of months while he works things out.
TC died without a current will so some things, like the batteries my neighbor wants to buy, will at least officially need to wait till the lawyers are done chewing on the upholstery and shitting in the corners. And eventually the property will be sold, and then there’ll be a whole new set of owners. But till then, the matter could have gone worse for Ol’ Caretaker Joel.
Funny aside: I was just loading TC’s little tractor into the trailer when an old Suburban drove up, and out came two other neighbors I know. They were all smiles and ‘how ya doin,’ but they were also both armed and mentioned they hadn’t actually relaxed until they saw “Joel’s rig.” Because mostly they wanted to know who the hell were those guys in that unfamiliar truck who appeared to be stealing TC’s tractor and trailer.
🙂 That’s my neighborhood.
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*and does anybody know what that’s all about? Maybe this account was being administered by SS? I don’t know how these things work at all.
If Soc Sec checks were being auto-deposited to the bank, the account could be frozen on death until the govt makes sure there’s no “charge-backs” due. I think when my M-I-L passed they “clawed back” a payment that processed for the next month between the time she died and them receiving the death certificate/notice.
I don’t think it took more than a month. I’m guessing they wouldn’t freeze an amount for more than a couple of months’ Soc Sec payments.
Yes, depending on what day of the month you die, it is normal for Soc Sec to “claw back” any pre-paid funds straight out of your bank account. I don’t know what law gives them that authority over your private bank account, I just know it happens. You will be dead when it happens to your account, so it won’t bother you too much. Sometimes it really catches a widow off guard though.
I like your neighborhood.
Here in Oz, the bank themselves froze my parents JOINT account when my mother died.
They weren’t advised of the death, they apparently watched the death notices.
I thought it strange, and had to help Dad out with living expenses until they could be appropriately reamed and access restored.
Then the same thing happened when my mother-in-law died – the bank ( a different bank) froze my in-laws JOINT account when she died. No advice of death, they just did it themselves.
Then they levied a penalty against him for a late mortgage payment – a payment that they refused to make to themselves from the account that they froze.
In neither case was there any involvement with our Social Security equivalent.
There’s no substitute for a “cash stash” to avoid such complications, especially a secure, government-untouchable stash for the surviving spouse. Joint accounts are frequently frozen, even those listed as JTWROS (Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship) when the gummint drones want to make sure they get their cut, and bureaucracies grind very slowly.
It’s also not infrequent for completely separate accounts (including safe deposit boxes) held by a surviving spouse in their own name to get frozen for a time, especially if they’re in the same bank as the joint account (even maiden name accounts may suffer because one of the SS #s on the joint account matches the SS# on the maiden name account).
A couple months of mortgage, utility, grocery money, etc. payments in an attorney’s safe in the form of cash has saved more than one person’s bacon.
When my husband died in 1986, he was still getting paper checks in the mail, both SS and his military pension. I sent off death certificates right away, but it took the SS idiots four months to stop sending the checks. I had carefully returned them by certified mail all that time, but I got several nasty, threatening letters telling me that I had to repay them! I sent copies of the certified mail receipts and never heard from them again.
Wonderful advice, Norman… but I don’t know many people who are able to put that much money aside. I’d say that the second best for that would be to have as little debt as possible. Not nearly as much savings required then. And why would anyone want to involve a lawyer in that anyway?
As for the armed neighbors, oh yeah. 🙂
“I like your neighborhood.”
My sentiments, exactly.
@ML – I’ll agree that it’s a burden to maintain that much spare cash, but what’s the cost of not doing so? There is no such thing as a cost-free decision, just that sometimes the cost isn’t obvious.
One thing that can be done somewhat more easily is to overpay the mandatory accounts – electric, gas, phone, etc. – by a manageable amount each month. I maintain a 2-month payment buffer (which in my case is easy since my bills are pretty low) so that whenever it occurs, those responsible for settling my affairs will have 2 billing cycles before the $@#& at the utility providers yank the meter or cut off dial tone.
No, I’m not earning any interest on those monies but I wouldn’t if it were currently in a savings account either, and I do have to maintain the documentation so the Cleaning Crew (my nickname for the trustees of my estate) is aware there’s 60 days of grace and to keep the providers honest. I’ll say, though, that in 25 years I’ve never had a problem with any service provider not properly recording and mantaining the positive balance.
Mortgages are another issue because of payment size, but, again, paying yourself first works. Consider the “buffer stash” just another mandatory monthly bill; if you pay bills electronically through your bank account just set up one more auto-pay. You can have that sent to a savings account (although I’d suggest it be an account at a different bank than the one it’s coming from, and banks being what they are, establish a routine for removing all but the minimum required to maintain the account frequently), or a check mailed directly to you (create a payee account so checks become “pay to the order of Mama Liberty”). It may take a while to build a sufficiently-sized “cash stash,” maybe years, but each journey begins with a single step, etc.
Oh Norman… it would be nice to have that kind of money. A great many people do not, no matter how frugal they are. I have no mortgage and no debt, but my tiny pension doesn’t go very far. No particular assets either, beyond this old log cabin and a 17 year old car. I’ll leave my prepper pantry to the local food bank.
My sons can sell the house and the guns, and that will be about it. 🙂