Paperwork Continues Long After Death

So I fetched the mail today, and there was a letter to my mother in care of me. It was from the Guardian Pooled Trust, the company that held Mom's assets so she was Medicaid eligible, and thus her nursing home tuition, as I liked to call it, was paid. The paper was a K-1, which is a tax document given to partners in some financial arrangement. I get them each year for my law firm, and also for some hedge funds Wifey and I own. This one said simply "No Earned Income for 2013." I knew that was the case, as Mom's final money in the trust went to pay off Medicaid, for the benefits they provided her. Miami Jewish charges about $5500 per month for a bed in their nursing facility, so Mom "came out ahead." I still get a $39 bill from some pharmacy service in Tampa, for some meds I guess Medicaid and Medicare didn't pay. At first, I wrote to the company stating Mom had died, and there was no money in her estate. The bills continue. So now, I send them back, writing the company's address as the return address, so they have to keep paying double postage. Such is the way of a passive-aggressive, like me. Wifey's BFF Edna is here from Atlanta, dealing with her parents' end of days issues. Her folks are Holocaust Survivors, like my in laws, and even more difficult to deal with. During the last year, they bought a new condo for themselves, and now realize they can't live without help. Edna has a younger sister, but she has her own issues, so can't or won't be the aid. So there are social worker meetings, lawyer meetings, and visits to nursing homes. Edna may decide to bring her folks to Atlanta, or may move them into MJH. I feel for her, as I dealt with this with my Mom, and Wifey is dealing with it with her parents. Right now, she's putting together paperwork for the annual Medicaid "Audit" for her father -- which is essentially the same as the initial financial record scavenger hunt you have to undergo when you first get them elibible. No one returns calls, and faxes have to be sent, re sent, and re sent again. It's a true clerical nightmare. And then, when it all ends, well...the mail continues.