My uncle wrote checks to be used by his wife after his death. Can these checks be negotiated now?
Legally, no. Once your uncle's bank learns that he has died, it can pay checks dated before the date of death, but only for ten days after the date of death. That's so that checks actually signed and delivered on or before the date of death have a reasonable time to clear, but the funds in your uncle's account now belong to his estate or any joint owner of the account, and those checks he signed before he died aren't valid any longer.
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