we were chatting with some extended family members, and was wondering about some death issues...
So - what happens when a person dies with respect to their accounts. Not related to taxes... but you can comment... more of avail & access.
How do the financial institutions learn (if at all) that a person has died. Is it related to the Death Certificate - does it have a SSN that winds up getting shared with the financial world ?
It appears that "bank" accounts, like checking or savings, might have a primary holder (I'm guessing the reporting SSN) along with any "signature" holders.... or are they joint ?
So, when a person dies, the other sig holders may still write checks on the account, but does it ever get "frozen".
Mutual Fund accounts with joint tenancy should just continue since it is "joint".