Hidden Debts That Can Destroy an Estate

...You know, parents, siblings don't necessarily tell everybody every little thing they do, and they make it seem like everything's fine. And in one specific case that I had years ago, everybody said, "Nope, everything's great." Well, unfortunately, the decedent had not paid their taxes in seven years. So there was a six-figure IRS tax bill that wiped the estate completely out. There was no money left for anybody. And so nobody knew. How could you know?

Right.

And so I caution people, like, I hear you, and you're probably right. I hope you're right, but we need to kind of go through the steps and not rush it. And I think a lot of people, when they get in this position, they want to hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, get it paid out, get it done, get it done, close it. And we can do it quickly, but we do have to move through the process appropriately.

After the creditor period is done, we will do an accounting, which is basically where we show every dollar that went out: to us, the tax preparer, you know, paying taxes ahead of time, any creditors. And that does come with source documents. So that will include bank statements, credit card statements, creditor claims. So it's not a take-my-word-for-it. It's a here's the document, and then here's the supporting material.