
Quoting
infoneed
I am named as the executor and trustee in both instruments; will and trust.
Whether it matters or not, I was also her power of attorney.
The trust, on "Schedule A," is just a bland list of accounts and assets. No
specific instructions at all.
The listed checking account does have the funds to pay the CC debt. I know
the CC is due their payoff before beneficiaries get paid. My question is more a
transactional question; whether it would be legal and/or ethical to just "impersonate"
my mother (she gave me verbal authority and passwords while still alive) in order
to pay the CC debt from her checking account without first moving her cash to a trust
account by more formal means and paying the debt from there.
I'm just trying to simplify wrapping up her debts without transferring funds to a different
account, posting notices, waiting for claims to come back, and them paying them, just
to do what's eventually going to be done anyway. I want to do it more easily.
In my naive opinion, this should require no consent from other beneficiaries,
because their consent, whether given or not, would not change the liability
of the trust to pay her debts.
So I guess it just boils down to whether I can use my mom's original bank
accounts to conduct what would be routine trust business, acting as if I
were my mom, rather than acting formally as a trustee. Technically identity
theft? I don't know. Maybe? These are debts in her name that she would
have paid anyway if she were still alive.
I was actually "impersonating" her to pay her bills for the last few months of
her life. I guess I just don't know whether her passing changes whether I
should continue doing that.