Software for administering a decedent's estate

I’ll also recommend Quicken for managing the financial estates of others.

My father’s Alzheimer’s led to me needing to manage my parents’ finances, along with my maternal grandmother’s (a task my father was handling). It was useful to have separate files for my personal accounts, my parents, and my grandmother. I could monitor my parents’ credit card spending and make sure bills were getting paid on time.

Quicken could even download “e-bills” so I knew the amount to expect when the auto-payments went through. I could set up recurring transactions for social security and pension payments, and for automatic billing to credit cards and checking accounts. And at the end of the year, I had organized information for the different CPAs preparing their taxes.

Another recommendation – order a credit report so you can identify all credit cards in the person’s name. There may be cards you didn’t know about when you assumed responsibility for their finances. If you’re handling a decedent’s estate, the cards might be canceled automatically (that happened with the only credit card in my grandmother’s name), but you’ll still want to pay off outstanding balances.

Finally, with my parents (both of whom have dementia now), I’ve established a credit freeze with the three major reporting agencies so they can’t open new credit cards. My father obtained an Apple Card last year without realizing what he’d done.

5 Likes

Thanks for those tips @tomlogic ! I’m finding that Quicken is more like the old friend I first met 25 years ago than the monstrosity it became when Intuit owned it.

I have created liability accounts and asset accounts for the estate I’m currently administering, which is helpful as creditors make court mandated debt claims. I also know what I owe myself in expenses as I take multiple trips to the north country.

I won’t pay the bank $10 a month for Quicken Direct Connect, but quicken can take my online login information for my estate account and match it to what it finds in the check register. It’s basically the same, just for free.

Final reporting is going to be much easier because I’ve kept my books this way.

1 Like