Untimely Death - What Should I Do?

[questions]

My dad was murdered earlier in the morning....he owns a house, a car and a buisness. None of it is fully paid... Im an only child.... im 18.....I dont know what happens with the finances....we have no insurance of any sort....my dad was the main dealer of everything....we never thought anything like this might happen....he was 40...we never got to asking these questions... accountnumbers and all of that stuff..

please tell me what could happen....

i was reading about the joint accounts and stuff .... i dont think my dad and my step mom have a joint account....i really dont know yet or what to do...please help

[disneysteve]

Very sorry for your loss.

The first thing I'd do is contact your father's accountant. Since he owned his own business, he probably had someone who handled his books and taxes. That person should know all about the business accounts and business-related issues. If the same person also prepared his personal taxes, that would be even better.

Your step-mom certainly should know if she had joint accounts, so I'd ask her that question.

If your father had no life insurance, he may still have had some type of insurance for the business, so I'd look into that. Again, the accountant probably knows.

The other task would be to start going through all of his files, bank statements, brokerage statements, bills, etc. to learn all you can about his personal finances.

Good luck.

[Broken Arrow]

Wow, I am very, very sorry about this.

Is there a will? If not, your step-mother may be the legal custodian of your father's estate.

There's something else. Something important that uh isn't going to sound good, but has to be said. Without knowing any details surrounding the situation of your father's murder, you are likely to be a suspect in the murder investigation. We assume you are innocent of course, but for us out there in the internet world, we just don't know what's going on.

Now, if you are a suspect, um, it's not going to look good if you start poking around asking about your father's money. And actually, you might not be able to touch it anyways, as even money and business assets can become evidence in an investigation, depending on the specifics surrounding the crime.

I think the best thing for you to do is to find support through your friends and family, and to cope through this ordeal while the investigation is under way. You'll also want to talk to your step-mother about the details of what's going on because, again, she will be likely be the legal custodian of your father's estate unless a will explicitly states otherwise.