Estate Question - Dad and Grandma Both Died
Location: North Carolina, US (both dead people lived/died there), I live in Minnesota, US
So, my dad died a few months ago, and then my grandma died like 10 days later. My grandmother’s will left her money (an assisted living account and some investments) to her 4 children (one of which was my dad) equally. She did not change her will after my dad died (she was pretty out of it by that point, so they actually didn’t even tell her). So, we all assumed my dad’s portion of the money would go to my mom (to whom he was married when he died). But apparently that is not correct, it actually goes to me (his only child).
My mom was told by probate court that she didn’t need to set up an estate for my dad bc he didn’t have enough solely-owned assets (only like his normal person stuff - clothes, etc). And he had a small credit card balance and his car loan in his name (everything else also had my mom’s name on it, too). He actually died while driving, and totaled his car, and after the insurance pay out, the balance owed is like $8k.
Here’s my questions:
- Do I or my mom have to pay his car note?
- In working with the money people to get the investments transferred over to me, I got a message saying “they \[the financial company’s “estate team”\] are requesting a small estate affidavit with a notarized letter from probate court showing you as the beneficiary to \[my dad\].” What does this mean? I am not my dad’s beneficiary, my mom is. Will getting this letter from the court affect my mom in any way? Are they just looking for proof that I’m not a random person with the same last name?
- I know questions are supposed to be specific, but like, what should I do? How does one “money”?