As many of you know, I lost my 23 year old son to a car accident between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's obviously been devastating. What I'm dealing with now is his financials. I went and closed out his bank account and credit card and it turns out I had to pay money to close it out since he had more money on his Visa than he had in his account (he did live life fully). I had co-signed on the credit card so I had to close that out myself. But now there is a small IRA (~$3,500) from his summer job (just like a young person, he did not designate a beneficiary), I just got his W-2. He lived at home and drove my car so, except for the IRA, he doesn't have any real assets. When I've tried to ask things about his situation (e.g., details on the insurance claims being made for his hospital stay since he's on my insurance), I get told "he's considered an adult so we can't release that information unless you are the executor" or have some other legal designation allowing for it. It makes no sense to me to pay a lawyer $300/hour to get designated as an "executor" since there is not much of an "estate" to deal with. I also don't know what to do with his taxes. He'd probably get a small refund, but I guess, even though I'm his father, I have no official designation to act in his behalf. This just piles onto an already horrible situation (I just got his degree in the mail two weeks ago from when he graduated in May in Mechanical Engineering from ODU). Any advice? I guess since I get turned away when inquiring about things because he's an adult, I don't feel really responsible for his obligations. Ugh. Life feels sucky right now...and probably will for a long time