We have a sole proprietorship, Jim Smith dba ABC Company. Mr. Smith passed away and was not married. (You can have husband and wife sole props in California.)

His store manager has been running the store and making deposits which require CTR reporting. I thought the account should be frozen until the estate piece is sorted out, but for obvious reasons the office wants to allow deposits.

So...how do I complete a CTR on a deceased person? I guess I could make the argument that the money is still his and therefore now belongs to his estate so we should allow deposits and report like normal for a sole prop.

Any help would be appreciated!

There isn't any way to fill it out correctly; the money belongs to the decedent's estate, not the decedent. I don't know diddly about CA law, but am willing to guess that your bank needs a court order naming the personal representative and an EIN. Also, I hope "the manager" isn't still signing checks.

However, what your bank really, desperately needs is someone running "the office."

Thanks for the response. I agree, I was just trying to find a way to deal with the problem since the office seems to be doing what it wants, regardless of what they are told. I recommended freezing the account until we have the proper estate paperwork, but it only got half the job done. They actually were allowing the signer to still write checks....unbelievable!!!

For the CTRs we have to file, I'll just have to do them as a normal sole prop, because it's the only info I have and I can't not file.

Our senior operations person is going to step in and tell them to freeze the account entirely. They'll have to listen to him.

Thanks again!