Location: IL
Wondering if anyone can shed light on my situation. My minor son’s father was killed in a car accident involving a semi. We were together but not married. The house is in my name and we kept separate bank accounts. I was able to pull the money from his account very easily with a small estate affidavit. I was told by an attorney that was okay to do but leave it in a separate bank account. We are now filing a wrongful death suit and the probate person said it might have to go through probate now. She is the assistant to probate lawyer and is supposed to check with the attorney and get back to me but it’s the weekend.
It’s questionable who is at fault for the accident. If this money enters probate and he is found at fault would I possibly lose those funds? Assuming it does need to go through probate. Right now there is no estate because the bank account was 30000 and he owned no property. I am worried the wrongful death case could make my financial situation even worse.
Comments
If he died unmarried, his minor or disabled adult children are entitled to an even share of at least $20,000 plus $10,000 per child. This children’s award has priority over other claims against the estate, and if the $30,000 in the bank account was all of his assets then it sounds like the whole estate may be covered.
Other than that, without probate, his assets aren’t protected from the claims of creditors. If he owed debts and you don’t use his money to pay them, the creditors can get it from you personally. That includes if the driver of the car wants to make a claim against his estate—that could be as a counterclaim in the wrongful death case, or separately. But this goes in order of priority; if the children’s award takes up all he had, then there is nothing left that the other creditors are entitled to.
If you do go through probate, there’s a short time that creditors have to file their claims. The ones that had notice and didn’t file on time lose their right to get it. So probate is more expensive, but it gives the heirs more legal certainty in the ownership of the assets and the representative of the estate is cleared from liability.