Which version of Quicken is good for handling a deceased person's estate?

sfurse3

I have been using Quicken Premier to handle my personal banking needs. I have recently taken on duties of an Executor for a family member's estate. The bank has opened up a business checking account for the estate.

Is Premier the correct version to be using to manage a person's estate for the heirs. The accounts and assets are not too complicated, but I concerned (perhaps unnecessarily) about this being a business account as opposed to a personal account.

Any suggestions?

Steve

Frankx

Hi @sfurse3

The answer to your question really has more to do with how complicated the estate is rather than the type of account that the bank opened for the estate itself.  And by "complicated" I mean the types of "assets" and "liabilities" the estate owns, and other factors. It is probably best to give a few examples:

If an estate "owns" a business (because the owner died) and the executor will therefore need to manage the business for some period of time and then dispose of that business (sell it, liquidate it, etc.) then I believe that it would be appropriate for that executor to use Quicken Home & Business & Rental Property.  BTW - the answer would be the same if the decedent held rental properties only, or in addition to owning a business.

If on the other hand, the decedent had personal assets, bank accounts, investments in securities, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., then I would believe that Quicken Premier would likely be adequate to administer that estate.

One thing that you should certainly do is setup a new Quicken datafile for the estate - separate and apart from your Quicken datafile and also separate from the decedent's datafile (assuming the decedent was a Quicken user).  The reason for this is that the estate is a separate legal entity, and an executor is tasked with accounting for all transactions related to the decedent from the date of death through the ultimate distributions and winding down of all of the financial affairs of the estate.

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you have any followups.  (BTW here's the fineprint- I am not providing any legal, accounting or tax services by way of this post - if you need such services you should contact a licensed professional.)

Frankx

Boatnmaniac

@sfurse3 - I am sorry to hear of your loss.  Quicken has helped me manage through settlement of 2 estates over the years and I'm sure it will also be able to help you.

Don't get hung up about that "business checking account".  That is standard process for settling estates because the deceased person's SS number expires the day of death.  For tax reasons, the estate acquires a new EIN or TIN (the business equivalent of a SS number) for the financial tax events that occur after the date of death and since the Estate is not an individual it is classified as a business.

I agree with @Frankx above that if the Estate is complex with rental properties or businesses that need to be wound down and/or liquidated, you should probably be considering Home & Business.

If that is not the case, I would suggest Deluxe.  The differences between Deluxe and Premier are mostly related to enhanced investments reporting and evaluation tools so unless you plan to actively manage a rather large investment portfolio for an extended period of time (years, not months) I don't think Premier will provide you with any real benefit over Deluxe.

Suggestion:  Start out with Deluxe.  If you find it is not meeting your needs, you can upgrade at any time to Premier or Home & Business and all you will pay for is the difference in subscription costs so it's not like having to buy a whole new program.  And what's also sweet about this is that you will not need to do a new program install.  The subscription change will simply turn on additional features in the already installed Deluxe version so when you open the data file after you do the upgrade it will suddenly have all the new features without having to do anything to the data file.

Frankx

Hi @sfurse3

The answer to your question really has more to do with how complicated the estate is rather than the type of account that the bank opened for the estate itself.  And by "complicated" I mean the types of "assets" and "liabilities" the estate owns, and other factors. It is probably best to give a few examples:

If an estate "owns" a business (because the owner died) and the executor will therefore need to manage the business for some period of time and then dispose of that business (sell it, liquidate it, etc.) then I believe that it would be appropriate for that executor to use Quicken Home & Business & Rental Property.  BTW - the answer would be the same if the decedent held rental properties only, or in addition to owning a business.

If on the other hand, the decedent had personal assets, bank accounts, investments in securities, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., then I would believe that Quicken Premier would likely be adequate to administer that estate.

One thing that you should certainly do is setup a new Quicken datafile for the estate - separate and apart from your Quicken datafile and also separate from the decedent's datafile (assuming the decedent was a Quicken user).  The reason for this is that the estate is a separate legal entity, and an executor is tasked with accounting for all transactions related to the decedent from the date of death through the ultimate distributions and winding down of all of the financial affairs of the estate.

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you have any followups.  (BTW here's the fineprint- I am not providing any legal, accounting or tax services by way of this post - if you need such services you should contact a licensed professional.)

Frankx

volvogirl

Just set up a new data file for it.  You can track a business or trust in Quicken the same way as your personal accounts.

Boatnmaniac

@sfurse3 - I am sorry to hear of your loss.  Quicken has helped me manage through settlement of 2 estates over the years and I'm sure it will also be able to help you.

Don't get hung up about that "business checking account".  That is standard process for settling estates because the deceased person's SS number expires the day of death.  For tax reasons, the estate acquires a new EIN or TIN (the business equivalent of a SS number) for the financial tax events that occur after the date of death and since the Estate is not an individual it is classified as a business.

I agree with @Frankx above that if the Estate is complex with rental properties or businesses that need to be wound down and/or liquidated, you should probably be considering Home & Business.

If that is not the case, I would suggest Deluxe.  The differences between Deluxe and Premier are mostly related to enhanced investments reporting and evaluation tools so unless you plan to actively manage a rather large investment portfolio for an extended period of time (years, not months) I don't think Premier will provide you with any real benefit over Deluxe.

Suggestion:  Start out with Deluxe.  If you find it is not meeting your needs, you can upgrade at any time to Premier or Home & Business and all you will pay for is the difference in subscription costs so it's not like having to buy a whole new program.  And what's also sweet about this is that you will not need to do a new program install.  The subscription change will simply turn on additional features in the already installed Deluxe version so when you open the data file after you do the upgrade it will suddenly have all the new features without having to do anything to the data file.

sfurse3

Thank you's to Frankx; volvogirl; and Boatnmaniac; for their quick replies. You've helped to relieve me of some unnecessary anxiety. B)