Who pays for Mom & Dad’s funeral expenses ? Some states want kids to pay

In Palm Beach probates, funeral expenses are a debt of the Palm Beach Estate.  The Palm Beach Executor — the one who administers or runs the Palm Beach Estate — also called a Personal Representative, pays those funeral expenses if they are reasonable,  depending on a Florida Probate Code Statute.  There’s an order to the payment of a Florida resident’s debts when they die:  estate adminstration expenses, probate lawyers, the IRS (for income taxes and estate taxes) and creditors of the estate, all have to be paid in accordance with the Palm Beach Probate rules:  the Florida Probate Code and the Florida Probate Rules.   A recent Forbes article discussed filial support:  when states make the kids pay their parents’ burial expenses and funeral expenses.  Sound different?  It is. Florida has no such law —-although estate debts & expenses always get paid before the kids inherit.

It might come as a shock to some heirs at law, or “next of kin” that they may have to pay funeral expenses or burial expenses for mom or dad.   A recent Forbes article suggests this.

But let’s be clear about Palm Beach probate and Florida Probate in general:  those who INHERIT money or assets from a Florida Estate, or, for that matter, a Florida Revocable Trust, do NOT inherit until all the decedent’s bills have been paid.  That’s right:  the Florida estate must pay all the reasonable and just debts of the decedent like outstanding credit card bills, funeral expenses, final income taxes, mortgage, etc., AND expenses of estate administration (like the Palm Beach probate lawyers, accountants, appraisers, etc.) …. …..then, with what’s left over, if anything, that estate property “goes” to the beneficiaries of the Florida estate.

Is this just making everyone run out and purchase prepaid funeral expenses, or maybe purchase a small term life insurance policy for the payment of estate administration expenses?