My wife’s mom died unexpectedly after complications from a routine procedure in NW Ohio earlier this week and we’re not really sure what to do. She was unmarried and has two adult kids who both live in Texas.
she didn’t have a will, so far as we can tell, and didn’t really have a lot of assets. She has a couple of bank accounts which likely don’t have much in them (she was drawing social security disability and not really working) and a truck to go along with her personal belongings.
unfortunately it doesn’t look like she had a POD/beneficiary on her bank accounts and they won’t release any information to my wife or his brother.
are we going to have to hire a lawyer up there to administer the estate and go through the probate process? Is it really going to be worth it? Anything we can do outside of that to get access to the bank accounts or truck title?
we’ve already informed social security…I think she got paid the day after she died, so as we understand it, that will get clawed back. We have no clue what other debts or auto payments may be coming out of her accounts. We don’t want to drain the accounts for fear of a fraud/identity theft issue.
not sure where to go from here.