Estate, Deceased Father, and Stimulus Check Received

[gorilla1969]

My father passed in mid 2019 and I've completed and submitted his final tax return about a month ago.  My mother passed years ago so my brother and are in the estate phase of handling the inheritance for my parent's assets.  I am the State-appointed Administrator of the Estate and received a $1200 stimulus check for my father.  I looked online and there's little information on what to do with checks issued to deceased taxpayers.  

The closing of the Estate is nearing completion.  Once my father's tax return refund for this normal taxes is received, the Estate will be ready for the final accounting phase of documenting all the funds in and out of the a Estate account and final paperwork to close the Estate will be issued to the State of Florida.  

Does anyone have some guidance with what I should do with this check?

Thanks.

[NCperson]

sorry for your loss

there are a few press reports about this situation, but nothing clear about what to do.  

on the one hand, the CARES ACT stated that no one is required to return the stimulus.

on the other hand, there is a thought that if someone died prior to the passage of the CARES ACT they were really not entitled (and social security should have removed those before the IRS sent money out)

if you heart says the right thing to do is return the check, put the IRS check in an envelope (or make out a new check made payable to the US TREASURY and mail it back to them).  write out a brief note and include dad's social security number. Mail to:

Internal Revenue Service
P.O. Box 1214
Charlotte, NC 28201-1214

when this occurred in 2009, many just returned the check as the right thing to do.