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On money

Death is no defense against ID theft

By HELEN HUNTLEY
Published December 11, 2005

Even the dead aren't safe from identity theft, the nation's fastest-growing crime.

Floridians filed more than 16,000 identity theft complaints with the Federal Trade Commission last year and three of the state's metro areas ranked in the top 25 in the nation for complaints. Last week, Attorney General Charlie Crist gathered law enforcement and government officials, retailers and bankers in Tampa to home in on the problem.

I'm glad they're on the case, but that doesn't mean we can relax. It's still smart for all of us to do what we can to make sure our personal information doesn't end up in the wrong hands. Among other things, we need to be careful when we're using credit cards, which account for about a third of all Floridians' identity fraud complaints, or entering any personal information online.

But you may not have thought about protecting the dead, who can be easy targets because it may take weeks or months for financial institutions to find out about a death. Younger people's deaths may never be reported to credit bureaus or Social Security. Family members end up trying to straighten out the mess.

Fortunately, there are preventive measures you can take, and the sooner after a death, the better. Here are some tips based on advice from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Identity Theft Resource Center:

*Put together a list of all the deceased person's accounts. Get a copy of the person's credit report to look for accounts you may not know about.

- Notify all the companies on the account list. That includes banks, investment companies, credit card companies and mortgage lenders. In some cases an original death certificate may be required, so be sure you get lots of copies.

- Notify the fraud department of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax (toll-free 1-800-525-6285), Experian (toll-free 1-888-397-3742) and TransUnion (toll-free 1-800-680-7289) .

- Notify the Social Security Administration (toll-free 1-800-772-1213) even if the person was not receiving Social Security benefits.

- Notify insurance companies, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (if the person had a driver's license or state ID card), the Veteran's Administration (if the person was in the military) and any relevant professional licensing agencies and membership organizations.

- Close joint accounts or transfer them to the joint account holder's name. Other accounts also may need to be closed and assets transferred to beneficiaries or to an account in the name of the estate. Talk to your lawyer about how that should be handled.

- Avoid disclosing the person's date of birth or mother's maiden name in obituaries and funeral notices, which may be scanned by identity thieves.

If you discover identity theft has occurred, report the incident to the police department, the credit bureaus, the credit card issuer and the FTC toll-free at 1-877-438-4338. The Attorney General's Office has a Web site (www.myfloridalegal.com/identitytheft) with helpful information.

I just married. My spouse owns a home but is unemployed now and I am the only person with income. Can we claim the interest paid on the home with our joint return if the earnings are only mine and the home is in my spouse's name?

Absolutely. When you file a joint return, you combine both your incomes and your deductions.

My husband and I have been married for 15 years and I have always been the provider for our family. My name is on all our assets. He has accumulated a lot of debts over the years and has no savings. Will I be liable for his debts if something happens to him?

The crucial issue is whose name is on the accounts. If a debt is solely in your husband's name and you did not co-sign for it, you are not responsible for payment. If your husband's name is not on any assets, there is nothing for his creditors to go after.

You probably should be more concerned about what will happen to your assets if something happens to you. Talk to a lawyer about setting up a trust with your children as beneficiaries and a responsible person as trustee. There are rules about how this can be done - you cannot completely disinherit a spouse - but you don't have to leave him everything.

Helen Huntley writes about investing and markets for the Times. If you have a question about investments or personal finance, send it to On Money. We'll try to answer those we think are of greatest reader interest. All questions must be submitted in writing, but readers' names will not be published. Send questions to hhuntley@sptimes.com or Helen Huntley, Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

[Last modified December 21, 2005, 12:20:25]