Finally Done

Gold Medallion Signatures, Affidavits of Domicile, receipt and release letters, short certificates, HUD-1 Settlement Statements, Disclosure Statements, Uniform Trust Act, EIN, Schedule K-1, DNI, Probate, Inheritance Taxes, Short year reports ... and many more. These are some of the things I've learned about in the last two years. And I guess they are things that I never really wanted to learn about. But as an executor I was forced to learn and learn quickly. These are just some of the things that took up a considerable amount of my time during the past two years as we settled both my father's trust and my father-in-law's trust. It was challenging because their deaths came less than two months apart. And it was only three months later that my brother also passed away. And he really wanted to help us, but he was just too ill to do much during those three months. The work was compounded when a lawyer gave us incorrect advice about the one trust and it was a three months into the process when we discovered that we were doing things wrong. So, we had shift into reverse and start all over again. Fortunately the Lord led us to a good local lawyer, a trust administrator, and an accountant who helped me through these months. We really needed all four, despite the cost. Fortunately my father was very organized and that really helped. But before we could do anything, we had to transfer all of his church records and conference records because he was financial secretary for both groups. This alone took several weeks. My father-in-law's trust was rather simple, although we had to make monthly payments from the trust balance to his second wife until she recently passed away. But a week ago we finally signed the final tax forms for both trusts and, unless the IRS finds a mistake, we have essentially closed both of them. I think most of the money went to the folks we had to hire as well as to a real estate salesman, a company we had to hire to make my dad's house suitable to sell, and professionals that we needed for a variety of services during the process. And, of course, there were funeral costs, probate fees, and inheritance taxes to pay as well as local taxes and operating costs for my dad's house. When they say that you can't take it with you, they are correct. But it is also true that you really can't leave much of it either - everybody else will get their share and maybe there will be a little something left for the beneficiaries to share. I never realized how expensive it is to die and I'm not just talking about the funeral expenses which themselves can be out of sight. Living is expensive, but so is dying. But, with the Lord's help we've made it through this long two year process. And, PTL, all of the family members are still good friends, something which can't always be said when many estates are settled. Now all that is left are the good memories and a file cabinet of old records that I must still sort through. There were many sleepless nights for me during these two years as I pondered what to do about many of the decisions that an executor must make. But as I now look back and see how the Lord worked all these things out, all I can do is say "thank you Lord." And I should have known this would happen. God is so good - all the time. Psalm 139:3 "Thou compasseth my path and my lying down and art acquainteth with ALL my ways."