Milestone

I hit a milestone in both the estate business conclusion and the ‘feels’ today when my mom’s final tax refund arrived in the mail. It brought me up short in a way I didn’t expect. Administratively, I’ve been muttering to myself, ‘Where the F is this refund… Mailed (no, couldn’t e-file) it off four months ago. Grumble, grumble, grumble… I popped it into the bank today, and asked the bank manager, who I bond with over Airstreams, how long he thought I should keep the last account open with mom’s name on it. He said they advise a year after death. Well we bucked that by more than three months. The issue is if refunds, of any sort, come in in the deceased’s name, you need to be able to deposit them into an account with their name, or an estate account. I’m 99.999% confident there are no more funds coming back in mom’s name except from a class action law suit she is part of that could yield real money (1000’s), but I’ve sent all the documentation off showing that I am her heir. Any fund from the suit should come to me. I ran her finances 100% for the last 3.5 years of her life. I’ll keep the last account open until the law suit settles. Then, I’m sure, there’ll be another moment where I’m brought up short.