Mother passed away with little money

[david621sf]

My mom recently passed away and had very little in her savings/checking account but she did own a house worth about $150,000. She has an equity line of credit against the house with a balance of about $37,000.00. My brother and I who are the 2 heirs, paid for her funeral which was about $6600.00. In addition to the funeral, there are many other bills to pay (attorney fees, balance of funeral, house taxes, bills, loan payment etc.) She did have a will and named my brother as Executor of the will. Once he gets his Executor status officially from the courts, we can then change her checking/savings account to read "The Estate of Jane Doe" but there is no money to pay her bills from that account. Neither of us have money to pay all of her bills out of our own pockets. The house probably won't be sold for at least 6 months or more and these bills must be paid sooner than that. My question is since the equity line of credit is still open and has checks to write against the loan, can we also change that account to read The Estate of Jane Doe and pay her bills with that? The loan payment comes directly from her savings account which is linked to that loan.

Thank you for your help

[able1]

If so ask the bank first. You normally should not use any credit lines further, even if secured.