8/30/13

Another morning of Dad's dead calls (Dcc).  (Yeah I thought I was done as well!).  The first one today was to Mail Handlers Benefit Plan (MHBP) b/c Dad received a check that obviously he can't cash.  I had such a fun conversation with customer service rep Lisa (although I'm not sure she felt the same way).   First she wanted to know of OPM had been notified (for all you civilians that's Office of Personnel Management) of his death (they have).  "I don't think they have ma'am otherwise you wouldn't still be getting checks."

"I don't understand, what does OPM have to do with his insurance?"

"Nothing, they're the ones that send his retirement checks.'"

"But I'm not calling about his retirement check, I'm calling about a check from the insurance - I did call MHBP right?"

"Are you sure??"

"I'm pretty sure... the check is from Mail Handlers Benefit Plan and only for $87.  I know the government is still in sequester but I'm pretty sure we can afford to pay our military retirees a little more than $87 a month."

After she realized I actually did call the right place of business she became a bit more informative.  Because my name is not on his insurance (again why would it??) I can't change the address on the account to mine without a POA on file.  I have a POA but LEGALLY it died when he died (per Lawyer Steve; Lisa even Googled it b/c "I've never heard of such").  Lisa said as far as the insurance was concerned, they just needed the POA on file - (NOT the will that names me as Executor (WTF??)).

Next problem for her to tackle - the check.  After some research she found out that it was sent to Dad in order to pay for his last ambulance trip.  No problem, I don't have an issue with that - now how do I get it to them?  "Well you could deposit it in his account & write them a check from it to Norfolk Fire- Rescue."  Ummm.... he's dead, the account has been closed; that's not an option.  "Oh yeah... hang on."

A few minutes later she comes back and says if I take the will, death certificate & probate papers to my bank (NFCU) I should be able to cash the checks (evidently there may be more coming as the claims are processed.  That will have to be another Dcc - the closest brick and mortar branch is in Fayetteville.  I may have to check into what it would take to open an estate account as Lawyer Steve suggested the week Dad died.  I didn't see a need for it then - it's not like he had any money & I wasn't paying any of the bills... never thought about money coming to him in this way. *sigh*

I got a package from the reverse mortgage company yesterday.  Because of timing issues it looks like they are going to try and foreclose on the property before I have a chance to make an informed decision.  I'll post more when I have more info.  Yes... I know I still need to post about probate court (will take me longer to post than it took to go through), hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.