Lowbatts
Gold Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Just got back from the barber's chair and he told me a great (albeit personally sad) potential treasure story.
His dad left him and his mom 35 years ago, never heard from again in that time. He was probably 9 or 10 at the time and life and living had all but washed those memories away. A couple months ago he got a clipping from a newspaper with his dad's obit in it. With the clipping came news from his dad's family, the cousins, etc. he'd never known or talked to. The obit and his dad's funeral had taken place a couple months earlier so he did not know about the loss until pops was in the ground.
Apparently they had said in a probate hearing that he was the only child and so the family there had to get his permission to open and recover the safety deposit box his dad left behind and he would have to accept the position of executor. Having been through enough similar experiences I told him that wasn't true and him having been to his lawyer, he already knew that. But his family had apparently taken the steps to get the estate assigned to him and give him all assets or at least tried to convince him that was the case.
He told them he'd have mothing to do with the issue, would not sign anything and did not care to hear about it again. His primary concern was that if he accepted responsibility for the estate then he might end up with debt owed by the estate, and nothing that came from it valuable enough to compensate him.
Initially the TH'er in me said go for it, blow off the family, take the safety deposit box and by a cigar with the contents or whatever was in it. In the end however I agree with his assessment, in this litigious world it may be better to leave the buzzards circling over there and walk away.
Told him my experince was that in the case of my mother's demise, taking the role as POA over her medical situation and picking up the cost of her funeral led to some thinking they could come after me for her debts. As all she left was debts and I was busy with that for awhile. In the barbers case he had already been contacted by the funeral home for the cost of the funeral but not until after the family had begun turning all attention on him as the "sole heir" so I told him, just walk away and tell them it's his debt, not yours and do nothing for the family you never had anything else to do with.
His dad left him and his mom 35 years ago, never heard from again in that time. He was probably 9 or 10 at the time and life and living had all but washed those memories away. A couple months ago he got a clipping from a newspaper with his dad's obit in it. With the clipping came news from his dad's family, the cousins, etc. he'd never known or talked to. The obit and his dad's funeral had taken place a couple months earlier so he did not know about the loss until pops was in the ground.
Apparently they had said in a probate hearing that he was the only child and so the family there had to get his permission to open and recover the safety deposit box his dad left behind and he would have to accept the position of executor. Having been through enough similar experiences I told him that wasn't true and him having been to his lawyer, he already knew that. But his family had apparently taken the steps to get the estate assigned to him and give him all assets or at least tried to convince him that was the case.
He told them he'd have mothing to do with the issue, would not sign anything and did not care to hear about it again. His primary concern was that if he accepted responsibility for the estate then he might end up with debt owed by the estate, and nothing that came from it valuable enough to compensate him.
Initially the TH'er in me said go for it, blow off the family, take the safety deposit box and by a cigar with the contents or whatever was in it. In the end however I agree with his assessment, in this litigious world it may be better to leave the buzzards circling over there and walk away.
Told him my experince was that in the case of my mother's demise, taking the role as POA over her medical situation and picking up the cost of her funeral led to some thinking they could come after me for her debts. As all she left was debts and I was busy with that for awhile. In the barbers case he had already been contacted by the funeral home for the cost of the funeral but not until after the family had begun turning all attention on him as the "sole heir" so I told him, just walk away and tell them it's his debt, not yours and do nothing for the family you never had anything else to do with.
