Everyday Cheapskate

Dear Mary: My father-in-law passed away last month after a five-year battle with cancer. During his fight, my in-laws accumulated outstanding bills, both medical and personal. There were no life insurance policies to help with costs. He and my mother-in-law owned a small business, and they were not pulling in the money needed for most of the bills. My husband and I are getting phone calls now from debt collectors. Can collectors go after my mother-in-law's business, her house or vehicles? My brother-in-law now co-owns her house. Could the collectors take him for a ride, too? — Cindy C., Michigan

Dear Cindy: I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Your mother-in-law, with the help of her children, needs to contact a probate attorney right away. She will need to gather all of the paperwork and documentation that she has, including your father-in-law's will, family trust and so on, if those documents exist. If your father-in-law left no will, your state has laws in place that will determine the disposition of his estate.

As you hear from creditors, please be courteous to them. They lent money to your in-laws' business in good faith. They have the legal right to make their claims against the business and your father-in-law's estate. The business has both assets and liabilities. Your mother-in-law cannot expect to get one without the other. There is every possibility that these creditors can make claims against the communal assets. She would be ill-advised to ignore the creditors or deal with them in an unprofessional way.

All of these matters will have to be settled through a process known as "probate" before any of your father-in-law's assets can be distributed to family members or your mother-in-law can rest easy. If you do not know of a good probate attorney, ask family and friends for recommendations.

Dear Mary: I am a military spouse stationed overseas, and we love our coupons! Thank you, Lori W., for asking about sending them overseas, and thank you, Mary, for telling everyone how to do it in your recent column titled "Adopt a Military Base by Sending Coupons." I try to send thank you cards to people I get coupons from to tell them we appreciate getting them. Living overseas is hard and expensive, and it's great when we can save money. Even better is the fact that people think of us! — Anne B., U.S. Navy spouse

Dear Anne: It is great to hear from you and to get confirmation that military families stationed overseas can use coupons that are up to six months past their expiration dates. My readers can refer back to the column in the "Everyday Cheapskate" archives for instructions on how to send these expired coupons to bases that can use them. Most commissaries located in overseas military bases accept these expired coupons. Thanks for all you and your family are doing to preserve and protect our freedoms.

Do you have a question for Mary? E-mail her at mary@everydaycheapskate.com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, P.O. Box 2135, Paramount, CA 90723. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com and author of 18 books, including "Can I Pay My Credit Card Bill With a Credit Card?" To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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