Shipping my late father-in-law's car

[Bill_Walker]

As you may have noted, my father-in-law passed away on Jan 11. His wife of 5 years is planning to return to Baton Rouge, LA, where she lived before they married. We have said we would have her car shipped there for her.

 

There a possibly minor complication: the car is registered only to my late father-in-law. As far as we know, he died intestate (that means he didn't have a will, for those of you not up to speed on such jargon). Most of his assets were in a trust that passes to his daughters, but of course the car wasn't in the trust. California being, IIRC, a common-law state, the car would pass to his wife anyway, right? Do we need to get it registered in her name before we ship it? We haven't received death certificates yet, but she's leaving on Thursday.

 

Maybe it'd be easiest if I just drove the thing to Baton Rouge and flew home. Hey, Whip, Google Maps says I should drive through San Antonio!

[Heck]

Bill, your mother in law just has to go to the DMV and fill out a statement of facts regarding the vehicle and that she is the successor. They will xfer the title. Call first and see if they need a copy of the DC and what the exact procedure is. When I had to take care of my father's vehicles it was a straightforward process. It will also help to have a straight title to take back with her when she needs to register it in LA..

I believe it just requires her to sign a statement of facts regarding the registration.

[Whip]

Hey, Whip, Google Maps says I should drive through San Antonio!

 

Ya know your always welcome here.

 

Louise and I have been goin through a lot of the same stuff with her mother's estate. You can send or drive the car to LA and then get the D.C. to her later to make it all work. I don't think it'll be a big problem.

 

 

Let me know if your headin this way.......I gotta get the red carpet cleaned.

 

Whip

[Quinn]

Are you the executer of the estate? Is it automatic in CA to give everything to the spouse or are kids involved? I don't remember what happened when my father died; I think everything just went to my mother automatically; but then he probably left a will. When my mother died, I was the executer and divided everything evenly with my brother in Texas. I sold her car to my son and credited the money to the estate balance; same with her belongings that were either sold or given to goodwill. The only real hassle I had was getting legalities finalized and getting Reader's Digest to quit sending stuff and trying to charge her for them. That's my one hint for retirement planning--cancel everything you have going with Reader's Digest; worse than leaving AOL. I think I'd rather deal with a roofing contractor than Reader's Digest when I'm 90.

[Bill_Walker]

Thanks, everybody. Of course, now that I think about it (and I'm sober ), there are more complications:

 

1) We don't know who the executor is/will be. We're guessing it will be either my wife, who's as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger and doesn't want to deal with it, or her twin sister, who's currently on a medical mission in Ethiopia. Or maybe it'll be the bank.

2) Both my F-I-L and his wife were both the "disorganized spouse" in their previous relationships, and my F-I-L has had Alzheimer's for a few years (a couple of years ago he threw out a filing cabinet that was "full of junk" - junk like his birth certificate, Army discharge papers, and every other kind of paperwork that his late wife had thought was important). We have yet to find the title for the car, so we may have to get a dupe.