<prompt> Human: My father recently passed leaving my mom, siblings and I. We arent wealthy and have been living paycheck to paycheck, and my dad was paying student loans which at the time of his death were at 10k. We had the funeral and had to pool our money together about 9k total to pay for it, couldnt afford a headstone at this time. After the burial, I submitted my dads life insurance policy, and we went to the bank to transfer my dads remaining 12k in his checking account over to my mom, but the bank denied it, and said we had to have a short certificate. We went to our county office and got a short certificate and named my sibling the executor ?, and went back to the bank.They then informed us that the checking account was now a estate account and we could not transfer the money. Along with the funeral costs, the hospital he passed away at is billing us 11k in my dads name in expenses. He also has a 50 credit payment which is automatically taken from his checking account.Without my dad, we wont have enough money to pay for rent next month and will have to move out and we have nowhere to go. Is there anything we can do?  <response>: Sorry to hear of your loss.When your father died all of his assets and liabilities went into his estate and are immediately under control of the executor which it sounds like is your sibling. Nobody can take money from any of these accounts except for the purpose of settling the estates debts and liabilities. Beneficiaries cant get any money until all debts are settled.At the same time, nobody in the family should have to use their personal money to pay for any of your dads expenses including the funeral, and if they did they can get reimbursed by the estate. So if you and your family spent 9k on the funeral the estate should pay you back for that.The executor proves that they are that usually by showing a death certificate and a letter from the county naming them as executor. Usually when the executor presents these two things or faxes them in they get access to the accounts. However the executor cant disperse money to the beneficiaries until any other liabilities are met.Some accounts like life insurance and 401k will have beneficiaries named and these do not go into the estate, the money transfers to the beneficiary directly upon death. This should be your first question to the insurance and 401k companies because that money simply transfers and skips the estate. Most married people name their spouse as their sole beneficiary but anything is possible. There are different ways of handling an inherited 401k account but you can take a lump sum distribution if you want.If your mom and dad had any jointly titled accounts then your mom would have full access to them without them going through the estate.So just to recap that, any accounts that were solely in your dads name are now in the estate. Anything owned jointly between your mom and dad are now owned by your mom. And any retirement or insurance accounts will have beneficiaries named and are now owned by those beneficiaries. Any money owned by beneficiaries now does not have to be used to pay any estate expenses.Your mom is probably due Social Security survivors benefits so Id check on that hereIf the estate owes any money such as for medical or other debt, once those companies find out he is dead, it is common for them to sue the estate. I know this is difficult but they arent being mean, this is just the legal process by which they get paid. It often happens that someone dies owing a bunch of people money and if there isnt enough money in the estate then everyone has to settle for less than they are owed, and suing the estate is the legal process for that to happen.Youll have to figure out how much money you have coming in from all of these different sources and then figure out if you can afford to keep living where you are now.Good luck.Source: I am not a lawyer but settled both of my parents estates. 