My brother passed away unexpectedly and I found he has a life insurance policy for $100,000 that names my mother as the beneficiary. My brother and I mutually understood that my mom is not self-sufficient and we need to take care of her and my understanding of this policy is that he took it out to take care of her in case of his passing.
She is:
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70 years old
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Hasn't worked a day in her life and has no skills
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Does not speak fluent english
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Has mobility issues and cannot go up and down stairs
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Owns a home(I am co-signed on the mortgage) worth $650k
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Lives 10 hours away from me and prefers to stay where she lives instead of moving closer to me
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Makes $800/month from her Social Security checks
I discovered my mom has several credit cards:
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Credit Card 1 Balance: ~$6,000
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Credit Card 2 Balance: ~$5,000
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Credit Card 3 Balance: ~$3,000
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Credit Card 4 Balance: ~$3,000
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Credit Card 5 Balance: ~$2,200
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Credit Card 6 Balance: ~$1,200
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Credit Card 7 Balance: ~$800
Total: ~22k
I have:
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No credit card debt
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My moms mortgage in my name
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Rent: $1900
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$300k in 401k
Since discovering her debt, I've frozen her credit and taken her cards away from her. I gave her my own personal credit card so she can buy food and basic necessities and she understands she messed up. I auto-pay my card and monitor my statements so I think I now have this under control. She's felt tremendous shame for years and has never had the confidence to tell me or my brother about her debt but she understands and I think I have the issue under control now but now I am wondering what my next steps are.
Apparently she would call the credit card companies to request 0% interest for a period and then she makes the minimum payments using her Social Security checks, and I've had a long conversation with her about how paying the minimum payments was never going to solve this issue.
We need to wait for the death certificate before we can collect the $100k but I'm trying to understand what the best options are here. My understanding is it could take ~6 months for them to release the official death certificate, which means obviously 6 months of interest on the cards.
I have enough money to pay off her credit card debt out of pocket but as the only source of income, I'm nervous about depleting my emergency fund + some of my house savings for this.
Should I:
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Pay the credit cards myself ASAP and then find a way to pay myself back via the life insurance when it pays out? I have mild concern the life insurance company will find a way to not pay this out, but it feels like I cant just keep waiting for the credit card interest to continue to grow. My plan was to call the credit card companies, explain her situation and seeing if I could reach a deal to pay off the entire card but I've never done this before, only read that people have done this.(For example, I guess call Discover, explain that my mom has no income but I'm willing to pay 60% of the balance she has if we can close the account out. I understand this will have negative implications to her credit but we don't really care about her credit score).
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Keep making the minimum payments until the Life Insurance comes through and then pay it all off in a lump sum?
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Is there any other options I'm not considering? I don't care about maintaining her credit score. I'm not trying to be morbid, but I don't know how much longer she has and if it makes sense to take a chunk of $22k out of the life insurance OR my own money to pay off this debt.
My brother passed away and left my mom money via life insurance. My mom has no income, no capability to work but a ton of credit card debt. What are my options?
byu/PrsnlFinance_Help inpersonalfinance
Posted by PrsnlFinance_Help
26 Comments
Talk to your mom. 1 only works if she’s on board. There’s nothing to figure out, she writes you a check or bank transfer
I wouldn’t use your own money. Yeah 6 more months of interest sucks, but with $100k there is still a lot left. The extra interest is not as big of a deal compared to the situation you’ll be in if you use your savings, then something major happens and you don’t have money when you need it. But just like you, I would be worried it won’t pay out. If that happens you would be extra screwed.
I don’t know if this is actually a thing, (and I don’t see why they would want to), but I wonder if you called the CC companies if they would be willing to freeze the interest/freeze the accounts.
Honestly, you should just sell her house and have her move in with you. It’s obvious that without any oversight, she’s very capable of getting into debt. If you make any profit off the house, you could use it to pay off her debts.
Seems that there is some concern that the insurance company won’t pay for some reason. How long ago did your brother die? You should get a death certificate within a week or two.
Since it seems you are like the guardian of your mother, you should negotiate the credit cards, then pay them off – even if you don’t get the money.
Losing a child is a huge stress and she likely cannot think straight now. I would suggest she use her income now to just pay the minimum on her cards and her other expenses. Once the check comes, pay off the credit cards and sit the money in the money as if it does not exist. Seek grief counseling. After waiting at least six months, maybe even a year, then she can sit down with you and other family members and think about what she wants to do. Perhaps she sells the house and rents or buys an apartment in a senior community. Less upkeep and the are handicapped friendly. Maybe she decides to do something else. But she should avoid making any decisions now since she is in the throes of grief.
Use the life insurance and pay off her debt. Put the half of the money into an HYSA. I would likely put the rest about $35K in an S&P fund.
Both my parents passed in the last 5 months. For both, we received official death certificates within a month. You can order them through the funeral home. Good luck and I’m so sorry.
How is she paying the mortgage and living with $800 per month? She has money squirreled away somewhere
It only takes a few weeks to get a death certificate unless there’s something strange about the death. Insurance payout is pretty fast, too, once you provide them the required documentation.
I’m just flabbergasted at how she lives in a $650K house on $800/month.
People always downvote me because they have a moralistic view on debt, but if it were my mother I’d file for bankruptcy now, before the life insurance money comes. She needs that $100K to last the rest of her life.
Unless you have a durable power of attorney for your mom, the credit cards are not going to talk to you about her debt. If you don’t have POA yet, you should work with your mom to get it for the future (especially if you need to sell that house at some point while she’s till alive but isn’t able to meaningfully participate in decisions), and to legally be the one handling the life insurance payment.
I would absolutely not use your money to pay off her debt. If the life insurance comes through, you can put the lump sum to pay off all the cards (per my other comment, it would be highly unusual for the death certificate to take more than a couple of weeks).
If for some reason the life insurance doesn’t pay out, what is the absolute worst that could happen if your mom can’t keep up with the debt? It’s unsecured consumer debt—they’re not going to take away her house. She’ll get a lot of debt collector phone calls, which could be challenging to deal with for a 70-year-old, but if she doesn’t speak fluent English it honestly makes this less of an issue. Her credit will tank—so what?
Don’t use your money. This is your mom’s issue. It’s great of you to help her, but don’t put your money into this mess. You’re already exposed to her finances as a co-signer on the mortgage; no need to get more deeply involved.
What’s her mortgage payment?
Won’t take nowhere near 6 months. 30-45 days max
Pay 22k to get rid of the debt and throw the rest into a HYSA. Your mom should rent a room out to a student or maybe someone dependable that will be a good tenant and run little errands for her if needed. She can live off of the rent. Cancel most if not all of the credit cards and make her live off a budget. She cannot afford to run up credit cards it she lives off of only $800 a month.
How is she paying house taxes, maintenance, utilities, and living expenses on $800 a month? I’m guess that is why she dipped into the credit card debt.
See if your mom’s community has HUD housing for seniors. (It probably does – even my small town of <10,000 people has cheap housing for seniors). There is probably a waiting list! They will charge her rent based upon her income. Then sell her house and use that to supplement her living expenses. And/or pay yourself back for what you’ve spent to support her.
How does she get social security if she’s never worked.
If you pay off her credit card debt and nothing else changes, you’ll both be in the same situation again in a year or two.
6 mos seems a long time. Took only a few weeks earlier this year for my dad’s. Probably another for insurance to actually send you a check after you send the certificate.
Id sell her house if I were in your shoes.
Oy. Thinking long term, she needs to sell that house and rent a small 1br apartment if she refuses to leave her current location. Have her keep paying the mins until the insurance check clears. Then pay off the $22k in full and put $75k in a HYSA.
Her house value + HYSA would give her another $2k /month to live on which would hopefully be like a $1200/mo apartment + $1600 for living expenses to keep her out of debt. She should also look into any senior or federal resources for food banks / SNAP, Medicare, etc.
Be careful – I know you have an obligation to your mom but she can very quickly take you down financially for your long term.
If you don’t care about her credit score why are you in a rush to pay off the debt?
Before you do anything, I would address the bigger issue, which is whether or not she has an estate plan? Assuming you, her, and your brother have a good relationship I would consider the following:
1. get a debt consolidation loan if possible to get a single payment and lock in your interest rate
2. Keep 2 to 3 years of monthly payments and medical expenses in her account.
3. Have her gift the rest of the cash and the house to you and your brother to move it out of her estate. This will be tax free under her lifetime gift allowance. It’s especially easy if you are already co-signer on the mortgage.
If she passes away before her debt is paid off it will die with her estate and the rest stays with her kids which is what she presumably wants. This of course assumes she consents and that you and your brother will pay for whatever medical expenses she needs etc.
I was a social worker in a past life. Let’s see how much of this we can unpack.
First, the Social Security. It is critical to find out exactly what she is getting. Is she getting SS survivor benefits from a deceased spouse, or is she getting Supplemental Security Income, a means-tested disability / elder benefit? If the latter, $800 is too low; the benefit for someone with no other income is closer to $950. If she is getting SSI she should probably talk to an elder law attorney about how the insurance payout may affect her eligibility.
Unless your brother died under suspicious circumstances it should not take 6 months to get the death certificates. One month is more like it.
Do NOT pay the credit cards with your own funds. If mom “pays you back” that may appear to be a gift subject to Medicaid look-back rules, which could prevent her from obtaining assistance with skilled nursing care should she need that.
You could pay the credit cards with a lump sum from the insurance payout. BUT it may be possible for mom to purchase an immediate annuity with the insurance money, which would pay her a monthly income for life. Only an attorney licensed in her state can tell you if the annuity payout is protected from creditors, but if so, that might be the way to go. Her creditors can’t touch her SS, and if she has an annuity payout is also untouchable, she’s “judgment proof.” As distasteful as it sounds, that means she can just ignore the credit cards, stop paying, and stop taking their calls.
You also might get her an appointment with a social worker at her local Area Agency on Aging. These people are tuned into the resources available in her community, and can help navigate some of the finer nuances of getting out of the jam she is in.
does she pay the mortgage, or do you? How much equity does she have? Can you downsize the house?
you need a POA (or something similar) that allows you access to all of her accounts
I wouldn’t worry too much about the CC debt if she isn’t adding to it now. I’d see if you can consolidate to a 0% card or something like that
Take the 100K invest into something like JEPQ Or JEPI which are funds in the stock market and I will yield you 1K a month that you could use to pay her debt without losing your capital or at least not 22K, the market could go up or down but not likely -22% and if it up 100K could appreciate
Lots of details missing here.
1.How much is owed on the house
2.what is the current mortgage payment
3.Are you in the will to recieve the house that you are helping invest in
I think its likely she isnt able to keep up with expenses. For a 650k house i would assume if the place were rented she could get 2.5 to 3k. Is there an option to rent out a seperate space? Like upper floor/lower floor? Could that be done for 75k? I think some additional income even 500 dollars would help her stay on top of expenses. Plus you guys can have a plan to keep up with mortgage if additional rent is possible.
I think you would have to pay off the credit debt otherwise the house will become collateral in case of bankruptcy.
Keep paying the minimum and wait for the policy to cash out, then pay it all off. It’s better to keep your emergency fund loaded and accrue a bit of interest, than paying the debt off and needing to pay something unexpectedly with no cash. You’d end up back in the same place at that point. Or worse, what if you deplete your emergency cash, it takes longer than expected to cash out, and you have multiple emergencies pop up between now and then.