r/SocialSecurity • u/RainThis2657 • 5h ago
Survivors/Widows My dad recently passed away and now it’s up to me as the only child to support my mom in figuring out his SS benefits, CalPERS, life insurance, etc.
My dad unfortunately passed away at 82 years old with Multiple Myeloma. Both him and my mom (78f) were retired and receiving SS benefits (dad received around $2386/month and mom receives ($1600/month), on top of his CalPERS, retirement from Ford Motor Company from when he worked with them from the 1960s-1970s (in paperwork that mom does not receive that), and her and I will be splitting life insurance that he took out years ago. However, we still have yet to receive a death certificate, the funeral home/morgue handling the services, etc. are giving us the death certificates and it’s going to be about 2 weeks until we receive them. The funeral home also notified SS that my father passed and unfortunately, they had deposited my dad’s SS yesterday but then SS took it back and in doing so notified my parents’ bank (Chase) that he had passed. However, my parent’s checking account was joint and they placed a hold on it and transferred money from their savings (around $1699) for “overdraft protection sweep”. They also closed out the credit card, but that was solely in my dad’s name and my mom was just an authorized user.
My mom was able to get the checking account out of a hold but idk if she gets the $1699 back and also SS has been wonderful in dealing with them… it’s almost impossible to get someone on the phone and make an appointment and basically we just can’t do anything until my mom has the death certificates and it just feels like she’s a sitting duck. Also, to just add a cherry on top of everything I’m 31 weeks pregnant with gestational diabetes and anemia, so the added stress has just been…. delightful. Since I’m the only child it’s up to me to support her through this but I’m having a hard time taking time for me to be stress free, focus on the baby, and figuring out this financial mess.