Cousin Erwin — How not to leave an estate

by Ralph Sanders

My cousin Erwin was a rascal. He had 2 or 3 wives, an estranged daughter and a son who disappeared years ago. There could have been others. He was a good machinist -when he wasn’t drinking. When he died at Providence Everett at age 70, his assets included a 401k and a life insurance policy (both through his work) and a truck. He also had a lot of credit card and medical debt.

Since I lived the closest to him, and because my wife Peggy Sanders is an Elder Law Attorney, it fell to me to be the administrator of his estate. 

My goal was to try to get as much from his estate as possible for his estranged daughter.

This took some doing on Peggy’s part. The world runs on paperwork. At first, the court hesitated to give me power over his estate, but after his daughter and brother signed off, I was appointed as Administrator. That gave me the ability to call insurance companies, banks, Social Security, and to gain access to Erwin’s personal property that was locked up in a storage facility.

I discovered that Ervin hadn’t updated the beneficiary on either the life insurance policy or his 401k. The beneficiary was a former girlfriend, with whom he broke up years before. As a result, from heaven he showered her with about $30,000, much of which was tax free. Lucky her. The paperwork said she could get it. There was nothing I could do. 

Erwin also had an AFLAC policy through his work, worth about $10,000. I contacted the local AFLAC rep who was extremely helpful. It took a while, but he was able to get the money for us. Interestingly, the day we received the check from AFLAC, we received a letter from them denying coverage. I cashed the check immediately.

Erwin had a storage unit in Monroe, and by accident I discovered another one in Edmonds. Again, with the right paperwork I was able to get access to both, after I paid the outstanding bills. 

That left the truck and the debt.  His daughter wanted the truck, which was in good shape.

Once Peggy arranged to get me the right documents, I was able to go to the DMV and get the title to the truck. I cleaned it up and took it in for some basic service. Erwin’s daughter and her daughter drove up from Oregon, and drove it home, along with Erwin’s personal effects from his storage unit.

That left his debt to deal with. This consisted of credit cards and medical expenses from his last illness. Peggy served each of his creditors with a Notice to Creditors, which gave them 30 days to respond, or the debt goes away. One of the credit card companies, which failed to respond in time, wrote to me and said, “We know you don’t owe this amount, but would you pay it anyway?” Answer, “Umm…  No.” And because Peggy had served the Notice to Creditors, that credit card company had no right to collect. Do we feel sorry for credit card companies? Umm… no.

All this took a few months, but in the end, we were able to put Erwin’s worldly estate to rest.

On a nice day at a beach in West Seattle, near where Erwin grew up, we held a ceremony for him. We scattered his ashes in Puget Sound, said some prayers, and wished him safe journey.

Lessons learned:

• Take care of this stuff before you die.
• Keep your beneficiaries up to date.
• The right documents open doors like magic.

Hire an Elder Law Attorney. Estate administration is complicated. An attorney can save hours of wasted time, confusion and frustration. I would have been lost without Peggy’s help.

— By Ralph Sanders,