No Living Will Leads to Family Conflict

Have You Created a Living Will?

Elvin Carey Jr., was stunned by the news that his sister Alva had a double hemorrhage that caused her to die on January 5, 2008. While he was not ready for his sister to leave him, he definitely was not prepared for the lack of documentation Alva left for her belongings. No life insurance, no burial insurance, no medical insurance, and several bills showing she was in debt were some of the not-so-happy memories left behind.

Without a will in sight for Alva, a single, unmarried entrepreneurial woman, Carey had to figure out how to make someone in the family his sister's executor since his family, as he stated, "went through the house like thieves. They went in there and took all the jewelry, all the things that were of value-the new computer that she had-everybody was just pulling and snatching things that they wanted, which is something you'd think a family wouldn't do."

In the middle of this chaos, one of Carey's brothers squatted in Alva's house. Carey said the light bill skyrocketed to $1600, the water bill rose to $1900, three months of nonpayment on the mortgage went untouched, in addition to the gas, cable, and telephone bills left behind. Another one of their sisters took Alva's 2005 Envoy and drove it around thinking the car would be paid off since Alva died. However, Alva hadn't gotten the insurance to pay off the car in the instance of unexpected death. So the car was driven to Carey's home in Atlanta, Georgia home to sit with the car note for that too.

"We needed to go ahead and sell the house," said Carey. "We couldn't get any money out of her bank account because...they froze the bank account. Only the executor of the account can get the money out of the bank, talk to the mortgage company, talk to the finance company about the vehicle."

Even after sending out letters to all of the utility companies and bill collectors, no one wanted to speak to Carey without proof that he was the executor. After three or four months of debating and Carey saying he'd agree to let his siblings have whatever it was they took out of the house, although he was not there for the house sweeping event, they agreed to let him be the executor.