<prompt> Human: Tl;Dr will be at the bottom. This is going to be a lengthy post. My apologies if I come off as ignorant, I am only 18 and have never dealt with anything remotely similar to this situation.Our dad died this past Saturday. It still doesnt feel real, but we need to start thinking long term to ensure we will be okay. As I mentioned, I am 18 and my brother is 22. We are acquiring roughly 120k from our dads life insurance, 401k and one other thing which I forget the name of. My dad was a landlord. We live in a two family house and he was renting out the other side of the house to our tenant. He charged him around 850 a month to live there. Ideally, my brother and I would like to move out of this house at some point in the near-ish future because its a constant reminder of what has happened. We have been tossing the idea around of paying off the rest of the mortgage if theres not much owed on it still. Afterwards, we would like to look into renting out the house that were living in and use that money to pay rent for wherever wed be living. We arent too sure about this yet, but were talking to a lawyer on Thursday who will probably help us look into this. We also gained access to one of my dads savings accounts that had 4k in it. We closed the account, and opened a joint account with mine and my brothers names on it and put the money in there. This money is strictly for bills and should set us straight for a little while. My dad was also paying off a truck he bought 2 years ago. We dont know how much he owes on it still, but we would also like to sell this at some point because neither of us want it or need it. Lastly, and I dont know how this works, we do not have access to my dads checking account. We were told to provide a death certificate to the bank, but we also heard there is a possibility that they would freeze the account and use the available funds to pay off whatever debt he might have been in. Im not too sure if theres any truth to that.Im sorry if this post was kind of all over the place, were going through a lot right now. No 18 and 22 year old should have to deal with this. Rest easy pops.Tl;dr: father died, brother and I want to move out of the house, not sure which preliminary steps to takeAssistant: We were told to provide a death certificate to the bank, but we also heard there is a possibility that they would freeze the account and use the available funds to pay off whatever debt he might have been in. Im not too sure if theres any truth to that.It is not the banks job to pay off your dads debts. Did he leave a will? If so it names an executor to take charge of your dads estate. The estate, not you guys, is responsible for any debts bills claims against your dad, so dont worry about that. The bank is not your dads executor. You might be. Depends what the will says.Do not pay off his credit cards. Theyre not your problem.If your dad did not leave a will, he died intestate and that makes things a little more complex and time-consuming, as a probate court will decide who inherits his assets. It ought to be you two, but other parties can come out of the woodwork. What other relations are there? Is your mom still around, or is there another ex? Are they generally happy or is there weird negative energy? In the worst-case scenario you and your bro may need a lawyer of your own to contend for your rightful share of your dads estate, but hopefully not.If your dad was good with money he should have had both a will and a lawyer who may be his executor. Start there.On the real estate front: you guys are perhaps a little young to want to be landlords, with all the time and responsibility that entails, and when the dust settles you may find your main asset is the house and you want to go in another direction -- like, paying for your education. In which case you may have better uses for the capital that is tied up in the house. Dont make any sudden moves though.Im sorry for your situation. I went through it myself as a teenager and it sucks. Better to be in charge of your fate from this point, however, than to wonder whats going on.EDIT to repair typos.Human: There is no will that we know of. My dad never talked about it, but we have a feeling there may be one. My dad did have a divorce lawyer, but we havent found any documents regarding an actual family attorney. Were meeting with a lawyer on Thursday to discuss and go over everything. Were aware that everything will most likely go to probate, which isnt much of an issue for us. As far as our mother is concerned, she lives roughly an hour or so away and she has never dealt with anything like this either. There is no possibility of us moving back in with her because of the distance, among other things. Neither of us are exactly fond of her and we both think itd be better if we just lived on our own. On the real estate front, my brother has a friend whos father ownsrents out several properties in town who already told us that hed be more than willing to help us out. It still may be a bit more than we could handle, so we will have to discuss and consider all our options.  <response>: OK, good for you for getting with a lawyer. As your dad was a landlord there almost had to have been an attorney who drew up leases and contracts, helping him handle finances, etc. and hopefully you will come up with a name as you go through the real estate papers. If you live in anything short of a big city, your lawyer may be able to figure out who assisted your dads real estate ventures. That same guy or gal might well have drawn up a pro forma will for your dad, as succession inheritance is always a key question surrounding real estate.It sounds as if there is some bad weird blood between you and your mom. I dont mean to be cynical but be cautious about how much information you share with her. You and your brother can operate legally on your own. 