Taxes on late fathers estate

[Mcshadow618]

This is so convoluted and I’m not sure how to proceed. 
Mother passed in 2014 leaving my father as sole beneficiary on a pension. He was somehow not aware if it, nor was I. Father passed in 2022. MetLife caught up with me regarding funds, went through probate and received a check for $53k yesterday. There are 4 heirs. Opening an account tomorrow for the estate. 
( he died with no debt, no assets)

I need to disburse the funds but I have no idea if this money is going to be taxed to the estate and I don’t know how to find out. 
From the heirs perspective , we live in different states. My father lived in SC which has no tax on inheritance. 

[fanfare]

As executor of your father's estate, know what you are doing or seek assistance from an attorney who can advise you.

A one hour consultation should be sufficient.

[Mcshadow618]

Thank you for your input.  This is next on my list of things to do. 

[Opus 17]

Don't open an estate account.  Estates generally pay higher taxes than individuals.

In general, this income would be reported by the heirs as "income in respect of a decedent."  See publication 559.  Because the entire amount would have been taxable to your father, the entire amount is taxable to the heirs. 

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-559

There should be no need to open an estate account, unless MetLife will only pay to the estate and not you, or the estate has other income and business affairs.  Assuming you receive a check for the full $53K, you can deposit it, and send checks to the 3 siblings for their share, and each sibling reports income in respect of a decedent on their own return.  

If you did open an estate, you would still pass the money on to the 4 heirs, the 4 heirs would report and pay the tax (not the estate) and the estate would show what was happening by filing an estate tax return and issuing K-1 statements to each heir showing the pass-through.  But that's overkill in this case, and would cost $200+ for the turbotax software needed to file the estate return.