Probating a Will

I have been getting conflicting information on what's required in order to change any banking & retirement accounts from jointly-held to individual status upon the death of my husband. He had a will leaving everything to me but the only thing not jointly held was a small IRA account in his name. I was advised that I would need to probate the will & submit a NJ Dept. of Taxation form, L8, aka Self-Executing Waiver Affadavit for Resident Decedent. Without this paperwork, the bank would be permitted to freeze our accounts for 10 days. Can anyone who's been through this shed some light on what's required or recommend an Estate /Trusts lawyer? There really should be some kind of manual for surviving spouses on how to navigate through the bureaucracy.

Mrs. GB

Reach out to @Joancrystal, sadly she has experience with this.

My condolences. I do not know when your husband passed but if you are over the initial mourning period take the Will to the Office of the Essex County Surrogate(I assume you are in Essex County) at the Hall of Records, 465 Marin Luther King Boulevard in Newark. They are very helpful and will assist you. As to joint accounts in both your names, I believe that all you need is a Death Certificate.

Did a Bank tell you you needed something more?

So sorry for your loss.

A retirement account cannot be jointly held. IRA = Individual Retirement Account. However, presumably you are the designated beneficiary on the account (unrelated to the will). A T&E lawyer can correct me on any nuances, but the asset should be paid directly to you if you are the beneficiary. Should not require probate.

An IRA is generally not a probate asset and usually has a designated beneficiary.  In this case, the designated beneficiary is likely you.  In order to prove your husband's demise, the IRA administrator should require an original death certificate.   As presumed designated beneficiary, you have the option of rolling-over inherited IRA assets into an IRA in your own name and treating those assets as if they were your own. This may be a good choice if you don’t have an immediate need to tap into your spouse’s IRA assets and you are looking to keep the money in a tax-advantaged account for as long as possible. 

Most of the big brokerage houses and IRA advisors have a webpage devoted to this subject.  See the following:

https://www.fidelity.com/viewp...

http://www.kiplinger.com/artic...

https://www.irahelp.com/forum-...

It will probably be easiest if you create the new IRS for you (the IRA to which you will rollover the balance from your deceased spouse) with the same brokerage or fund were the deceased spouse's IRA is held.

PS Condolences on your loss.

A form L-8, or Self-Executing Tax Waiver, is required by a bank or other financial institution in order to transfer an account of a deceased person if an  estate is not subject to the NJ estate tax. For 2017, estates less than $2 million are not subject to NJ estate tax. 

Mrs. georgieboy - Here's a link to a Form L-8. It's just a formality that is required of the financial institution. You don't need a lawyer. 

http://www.state.nj.us/treasur...

I am just going through this with my Dad's estate.

Easy enough to submit a will for probate, if you need to. But you may very well not need to.

(I'm n o t a lawyer, but learning much in this process) Any assets jointly held do not need to go through probate. Any assets where you are the beneficiary, don't need to go through probate.

For the IRA, are you the beneficiary?  if so, then it'll be transferred to you. If not, it will go to your husband's estate.

I believe you'll still need an estate EIN regardless -

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/modiei...

So sorry for your loss.

My thanks to all who responded. I'm going to complete the L8 Form & take that along with the death certificate to the bank & see what happens. I'll report back.

Mrs. GB

georgieboy said:

My thanks to all who responded. I'm going to complete the L8 Form & take that along with the death certificate to the bank & see what happens. I'll report back.




Mrs. GB

So sorry for your loss. My husband passed away five years ago and they do freeze half of jointly held assets and all of his own assets until the will is probated, but that's not a big deal, just a trip to the Surrogate's office in Newark. You are going to need Surrogate's certificates anyway (I did for my husband's IRA), so you might as well get it over with.

One thing to be careful of: Verizon. Or whomever you use for telephone, internet, TV. 

My FIL died. The Verizon bill was in his name. My MIL asked Verizon to switch the account to her name. They asked her why. She was honest and said that her husband is deceased. They canceled the account and tried to sell her a new account that cost 50% more. Apparently MIL/FIL had ben grandfathered into an old plan that no longer exists. So they took advantage of my MIL. Claimed that because FIL was deceased, it was now a new account. Took us awhile to straighten it out.

Lesson learned: Do not tell utilities or anyone else that your spouse is deceased unless it is absolutely necessary for the transaction.

Also, for existing couples, put all utilities in both names.

shoshannah said:

One thing to be careful of: Verizon. 

That is good advice for everything.

@georgieboy:  I am so very sorry for your loss.  As Joy wrote above, I was in the unfortunate position of being executor of my husband's estate about a year and a half ago.  Every so often, yet another estate related issue pops up.  It seems unending from time to time.  I will be happy to help in any way I can.  A lot of my journey is described in more detail than you may want to read in the thread "Caretaking 102"

https://maplewood.worldwebs.co...

Please read the sections you find helpful and then reach out to me here or by PM and I will be glad to answer what questions I can.  In my case, I did submit the will for probate.  A surprising number of sources, social security, VA, his employer, credit cards, insurance company, bank, etc. required the executor short certificate and/or letters testamentary  before taking the required action.

Georgieboy, I'm sorry for your loss.  You didn't mention any probate assets above.  Only non-probate (= assets that pass outside the will).  Joint accounts, IRAs, life insurance, deeds that are tenancy by the entirety--you don't have to probate a will to retitle any of those. 

Couples often don't have any probate assets. It's common for a husband to have a car in his sole name, though. Sometimes you have to probate a will just to retitle a car.