Estate Questions

[CITYGIRL811]

New York, Westchester County

This will sound strange but my Mom died in August of 2000. At the time of her death she did have a will and all the assests were to be split between my sister and I. That was not a problem with the bank accounts. Those accounts are all settled. The problem is her retirement/pension accounts. My sister is the executor of her estate because she lived in New York and I lived in Connecticut at the time of my Mom's terminal cancer diagnosis. The problem is that I tried repeatedly to get my sister to go and get the pensions taken care of with probate but she suffers from panic disorder and can't do it on her own. She also stopped talking to the family and speaks to no one. My Mom worked for 25 years for rather large companies and although the amounts are not that large I would hate to see the money that she worked so hard for get lost. My questions are: Is there a statute of limitations for claiming the money and what can I to get something done with it??

 

[Dandy Don]

If you think sister would be willing to let you serve as alternate executor, then get her permission in writing to do so and then file the appropriate paperwork at the county courthouse. Very unusual that your mother did not designate individual beneficiaries for these monies since that is how it is usually done.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[CITYGIRL811]

I agree I am really surprised about her not assigning a beneficiary. My Mom was an accountant and very organized. She listed everything for us but it wasn't until we started to do the paperwork that we found out about these problems. I think what happened is that my Mom worked for a big Pharmaceutical company that acquired and merged with other companies so she had a few of these pensions and somewhow they did not follow up on the paperwork. In the beginning we contacted the companies and I am talking about big companies like T Rowe Price and they were the one's that told me they had no designations. Does anyone know if there is a time limit to file and if these accounts get turned over to probate or if I we have to do more with the company to get it into probate. I don't want to waste time but if there is a chance to get this money I want to do it. I paid for the burial and my sister told me at the time that I would get one of the checks to cover this. Now as I said she is not speaking to the family.

 

[Dandy Don]

How much money do the accounts add up to?

There is no time limit--as long as the asset is there it can be claimed. Problem is that the executor is the only one with authority to claim the money. If she won't do it, then hire a probate attorney in Connecticut to get it done.

Did you ever receive anything from the estate? It's most unusual that she won't go after this money and I'm wondering if it is possible that she may have committed some type of theft or fraud against the estate and that she may not want to be found out about it. If I were you I would at some point order a copy of every document in the probate file to review exactly how the estate was handled and have your attorney also look it over to make sure no improprieties have occurred.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])