I have a check from an insurance co. made payable to the estate of _______. However, there is no estate account set up because of little to no assets of the decedent. Can I accept a check like this from the decendent's son for deposit into a joint account in the name of the decedent and his son?

at our bank, in cases where there are no real assets to speak of, is to open an estate account using the social of the deceased, deposit the check, pay the bills, and close it. Even an non-interest bearing account would work if you are concerned about a tin mismatch.

Check your state laws on probate. Because these laws are fairly uniform state-to-state, there is probably an abbreviated form of probate that the heirs can use. It may be as simple as signing an affidavit of heirship.

Because you said that there are little or no assets, I assume this check is not very large. Have someone call your bank's attorney to discuss how to handle this. Get it in writing--then file the answer in your procedures for the next time it happens.