inheritance

[helpsoneeded]

Sorry if i spelled that wrong. Here is the problem..We just found out that my husband is the beneficiary of my mother-in-laws life insurance. She passed away in Nov. It is worth 6200.00 . He does have a brother and a sister that he would have to share with because they all pitched in for the furnal expenses. Will the trustee take all of this money? Will he at least let us give his family their share? How does that work? We are having our 341 next week for a chapter 13..Thanks

[Flamingo]

What you need to do is call your attorney with the information. You may or may not be able to keep the money as your Trustee will make the determination - there is no guarantee, but you do need to report the funds.

[falken]

Your lawyer could try and argue payments to your family as ordinary course of business. This is a stretch, especially since you just found out about the money (hence, paying them a share was not preplaned).

There are a lot of variables, just make sure you tell your attorney about it. Depends a lot on your trustee and what they think of it.

[justbroke]

Sorry if i spelled that wrong. Here is the problem..We just found out that my husband is the beneficiary of my mother-in-laws life insurance. She passed away in Nov. It is worth 6200.00 . He does have a brother and a sister that he would have to share with because they all pitched in for the furnal expenses. Will the trustee take all of this money? Will he at least let us give his family their share? How does that work? We are having our 341 next week for a chapter 13..Thanks

Definitely a good question, and certainly one that would stump many lawyers!

Do not give the money away to family until you have consulted a Bankruptcy Attorney! If you transfer it and the Trustee doesn't like that... they will seek to recover it from your relatives!

Depending on how much you're paying to your unsecured creditors, may impact this, but my gut feeling is that the Trustee will want it all. If you already covered funeral expenses then the Trustee will say that is not a current expense and will say that money is property of the estate. This is just my personal read. Do not play games and make any claims that are not true.

Whether his family has a "share" in an "inheritance" will be based on the distribution of an insurance policy (the benefactors) or some probate action. In any event, the money (probably) should have been directly bequeathed to those brothers/sisters. If it was bequeathed solely to your husband... this makes is more likely the Trustee will be interested in that money.

Sorry for your loss. It's always tough when you then have to start talking about money.

[helpsoneeded]

what if we just dont claim it and let it go to unclaimed funds so his family members can then claim it? We just found out about it and they said if we dont reply by a certain date, then it gets sent over to the state.

[justbroke]

what if we just dont claim it and let it go to unclaimed funds so his family members can then claim it? We just found out about it and they said if we dont reply by a certain date, then it gets sent over to the state.

I was being very... nice, when I wrote earlier that you don't want to play games. Please, don't do this.

You need to disclose this.

You need to speak with your attorney about what to do. Even if it went to the State, and the Trustee "finds" it, they'll still take it. If they find out that you are trying ti "hide" property of the estate... you could end up with worse trouble than them just taking the money.

Again, consult your attorney. Your attorney may be able to do things to recover some or all of the money if there's a good thing to apply it to. Just giving it to your relatives won't be one of those things the Trustee will be happy to accept.

[helpsoneeded]

I did contact my attorney today and explained on the voicemail as to what was going on, so hopefully she will get back to me tomorrow. We definetely wont try to hide anything. Its not that big of a deal to take any chances with. I was just wondering if there were any other legal options. Thanks for the advice!!! I really do appreciate all the help everyone has offered on this site.

[helpsoneeded]

I do have one last question though. What if we are allowed to excempt a certain amount of money, can we do that? I'm not sure what we are allowed in NYS, but so far we did not excempt any cash except for the whole 1000.00 we had in our account.

[justbroke]

I do have one last question though. What if we are allowed to excempt a certain amount of money, can we do that? I'm not sure what we are allowed in NYS, but so far we did not excempt any cash except for the whole 1000.00 we had in our account.

If you still have leftover exemptions for cash left over (there could be exemptions of "death" benefits as well), you could amend your schedules to include this "inheritance".

Was this inheritance a death benefit?

(I don't know the rules for NY)

[helpsoneeded]

Yes, it was a life insurance policy.

[justbroke]

Yes, it was a life insurance policy.

I would definitely ask your attorney about death benefits and whether you can exempt this.

[Flamingo]

We went through the inheritance thing when my father-in-law passed away 1 1/2 years into our filing (I see the OP has already filed but has not yet had his 341). It was also from life insurance proceeds split between my hubby and his brother. The trustee kept just over half of his share. As I stated above in my previous posting, there is no guarantee whether or not you will be able to keep any, all or a portion of the funds - talk to your attorney who will contact the trustee.

[helpsoneeded]

Since we are not confirmed yet, is it possible that they would let us keep it and pay it back into the plan?

[Flamingo]

Since we are not confirmed yet, is it possible that they would let us keep it and pay it back into the plan?

You will need to discuss that with your attorney; you will either get to keep it, a portion thereof, or none of it, and your plan may be modified to include it.