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hey estate planning attorney paul ramile here and in this video we're going to talk about estate legal matters that need to be addressed by a surviving spouse within a relatively short period of time after their spouse dies so sometimes surviving spouses just assume they don't need to do anything after their spouse dies so i want to address kind of typical matters that really should be addressed after your spouse dies now i'll be the first to admit this is kind of a uh a tough video for me to make because everybody's circumstances can be so different but i'm gonna do my best okay so really immediately after your spouse dies uh again generally the the first thing that needs to be addressed and this doesn't have anything to do or not much to do with estate legal matters but certainly all those funeral arrangements family have to be dealt with all of that stuff is typically dealt with you know within that maybe seven to date seven to ten day period after your spouse dies so that's enough to deal with focus on that now i will say if there's some pressing estate legal matter that's bothering you in those first few days after your spouse dies by all means make the call get address it get the advice do what you need to do but i would say you know those first seven to ten days is is a can be a traumatic time for surviving spouses so just take care of you take care of family take care of funeral arrangements but once that gets behind you i i really wouldn't wait too long to start addressing some of these things for the reasons that i'm about to tell you and i will say by the way when you're handling those funeral arrangements you're likely to be asked would you like some death certificates how many would you like to get and i would say because they're relatively inexpensive get more than you think you need you know you'll need perhaps one for each financial institution where you or your spouse had accounts maybe you know ask for a few more most people get maybe 10 or 15 death certificates that's common all right so now that that piece is behind you you want to start looking at some of these estate legal matters one of the first things that you want to do is determine if a probate is necessary or as we call it here in louisiana determine whether a succession is necessary and you can go ahead and kind of initiate that determination because you don't need death certificates to initiate a succession proceeding death certificates don't get filed at the courthouse right out of the box instead family members sign these affidavits that's proof to the court that the person passed away and what their family circumstances were so you know you'll want to take a look at the the real estate that the deceased spouse owned um you know if especially here in louisiana if if you purchased a home with your spouse uh while while you and your spouse were alive and now that your spouse has passed away and that spouse that property is in both of your names there's going to be a probate necessary to get his name off of the title you're not going to be able to sell that home or that real estate that he owned until you've addressed the probate take a look at the financial accounts many married couples have joint bank accounts and in many cases if one spouse dies the survivor can still transact that joint bank account but determine whether the deceased your deceased spouse had accounts that were solely in his or her name look and see if your deceased spouse had any individual brokerage accounts or whether the two of you had some joint brokerage accounts again your deceased spouse's interest in those brokerage accounts will likely be frozen and the probate will be necessary those court orders will be necessary to order those brokerage firms to retitle the account from your deceased spouse's name into your name or into the appropriate heirs name so take a look at that i realized some other states you can title brokerage accounts things like joint tenants with rights of survivorship where the accounts automatically go to the surviving spouse and so but that option is not uh not allowed here in louisiana so take a look at that um take a look at your car titles or registration again some surviving spouses mistakenly tell me paul i'm okay our all our vehicles are in both of our names i'm good well you're not good because in order to sell or trade in or transfer that vehicle both you and your deceased spouse's signatures would be necessary so you're not okay again you got to go through the probate stuff to get your deceased spouse's name off of that car title and get that car into your name only or under the names of the years whatever the case may be so that's the kind of determination that you need to make about whether there's a a probate or as we call it in louisiana and louisiana a succession that's necessary so make that determination and then once you know the answer you can you can take the appropriate action now that you've done that now the death certificates ought to be rolling in so now it's time to address some of the things that do require death certificates so you want to deal with your deceased spouse's beneficiary designation items things like annuities that were owned by your spouse life insurance iras and other retirement accounts and i would say it is really important to address those really as soon as practical after your spouse dies because if you don't take care of that and put those beneficiary designation assets like iras in your name if you don't go to the financial institution right away present the death certificate and do the paperwork that you need to do to get those assets that are in your name if you were designated as the beneficiary and if you don't do that before you pass away then it will create significant both probate and income tax problems for your heirs if you pass away before you've taken care of all of that stuff after your spouse died so make sure you go ahead and address that now maybe you don't want to make major investment and long-term you know financial decisions immediately after your spouse dies but at least get it in your name so you avoid all the income tax and probate problems that would exist if you pass away without those things being in your names okay and then another issue to address is if you and your spouse created a living trust and all those trust assets they they bypass or they don't have to go through the judge court attorney involved probate proceeding there may be no no probate necessary however many joint trusts that married couples create require that upon the first death those joint assets be split into the deceased spouse's trust and the surviving spouse's trust and while you don't need any judges or lawyers or court orders to do that because that surviving spouse is typically the trustee of that trust and they can do that themselves it is important to go ahead and and separate those assets for two reasons one of the reasons that's important to go ahead and address that is for potential future estate tax consequences now that doesn't affect everyone but it can be really important to separate those assets particularly if the couple has different you know heirs or beneficiaries and you see that a lot when married couples get later in life and they each have their own heirs or beneficiaries you want to make sure that those joint trust assets get split upon the first deaths so there's no confusion when the surviving spouse dies what's the first spouse to dies assets and what's the surviving spouse's asset so real real important to address that now with all that being said are you required to hire an estate attorney when your spouse dies perhaps not particularly if there's no probate necessary if you're gonna have to go through a probate yeah you're gonna have to hire an attorney to guide you through that but if there's no probate necessary then there's no requirement that you hire an attorney to get you through these issues however you may want to get some estate administration administration legal advice for two reasons one you want to make sure that your dissipa deceased spouse's assets wind up where they're supposed to wind up and then two you want to make sure that moving forward your estate is set up properly so that you have the protections that you need you have the control that you need and you have things in place now to protect your future heirs or beneficiaries so some final advice i'd say number one turn the gray like button to blue that tells youtube hey show paul's videos to a few more folks they might like to see it and then two hit the subscribe button and the notification bell that way you don't miss anything as i keep making these really incredible estate planning videos so that more people get educated but three i'd say don't be afraid to ask questions so there is no stupid question i've been doing this for 30 years and as i look back and think back for 30 years if somebody asked me paul what's the stupidest question anybody ever asked you i can't even think of one because if it's a if it's something that bothers you or concerns you it's an important question even though it may be a very easy quest question for somebody like me to answer if it's causing you some stress it's a great question then two i'd or number four whatever if you if you get help get the right help maybe you don't want the person at the bank who's now trying to sell you an annuity because your husband left some cds at the bank maybe he's not the right person or she's not the right person to get you through some of these just initial estate administration concerns and while you you may not want to make any major you know financial and contractual decisions immediately some people say you know i'm not going to do anything major for a year i'm you know i lost my spouse i don't want to make any difficult decisions i'm not going to make any decisions for a year i would say however that it is prudent to handle the things that i discussed in this video it is prudent to kind of handle those really right away or as soon as practical after your spouse passes away so a tough issue a tough time for surviving spouses they for many cases they've lost lost their you know 30 40 50-year spouse in many cases it's their soulmate their best friend the person who handled all of the finances for many surviving husbands and wives they lost the person who just took care of all of this stuff so i realized it can be overwhelming but you're gonna get through what everybody does get yourself some good help rely on people that you can trust and things are going to be okay all right y'all take care have a great day see ya