{"id":12954,"date":"2024-07-07T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legaltalktexas.hammerle.com\/?p=12954"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:23:30","slug":"probate-creditor-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/probate\/probate-creditor-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death of a Probate Creditor Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve been helping your widowed mom handle her bills and finances. She dies. You want to be efficient, so you go ahead and pay her credit card bills as usual.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was that a good idea? No, it was not.<\/span><\/p>\n

Death marks an end to business-as-usual for financial matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Different Classes of Claims<\/span><\/h2>\n

You should no longer view your mom\u2019s bills as automatically payable. They must be turned into <\/span>claims<\/span><\/a>, which are then ranked by class. There are eight classes of claims. Class 1 claims get the highest priority and are paid first. The next classes are paid in order. Often an estate doesn\u2019t have enough assets to pay all of the claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before any class claims get paid, however, three other types of claims must be paid first. These are\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. US government claims (such as <\/span>taxes<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The allowance in lieu of homestead.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Preferred debts and liens.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Only when those have been satisfied can you turn to the class claims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n