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Spirit1

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Iowa

My mother recently died this past January. My sister was named the executor of her estate. In the first paragraph of the will, it named her (my sister) as the beneficiary of my mother's home and physical contents. Well and fine.

In the second paragraph (the only place I am named formally), the will states that any cash assets are to be divided equally between my sister and myself ie bank accounts, investments, stocks, insurance etc payable to the estate.

In the interest of full disclosure and transparancy, how do I go about finding out how much cash, insurance etc my mother had?

There is an attorney handling the estate legal issues. And, the special circumstances are my mother lived in Texas where my sister (executor) also lives. And, I live in Iowa.

Thank you in advance for any guidance you can offer.What is the name of your state?
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
Do you and your sister get along fairly well and is she trustworthy?

Has she sent you a copy of the will and have you been formally notified when the first court hearing about the probate is going to be?

All you can do right now is trust that she will report the cash assets correctly and you will eventually receive your fair share from this estate.

If you know the bank where your mother did her banking you can call the bank to ask them about the status of her accounts. If mom named you on the accounts (not just in the will) as beneficiary, then the bank can send the check directly to you without going through probate.

You need to ask sis to give you an accounting of the cash assets she knows about so far and see how she will react and you also need to ask her if the will has been filed in court yet. And if she won't give you information, ask if she has power of attorney granted by mom.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
Do you and your sister get along fairly well and is she trustworthy?

<A>I trust her like a cobra.

Has she sent you a copy of the will and have you been formally notified when the first court hearing about the probate is going to be?

<A>I have a copy of the will and the probate hearing came and went 2/14/2006.

All you can do right now is trust that she will report the cash assets correctly and you will eventually receive your fair share from this estate.

<A>I am still waiting for the above. I hope the estate attorney forces her to do the right thing. I would call the attorney, however, I don't want to stir up a hornets nest untill absolutely necessary.

If you know the bank where your mother did her banking you can call the bank to ask them about the status of her accounts. If mom named you on the accounts (not just in the will) as beneficiary, then the bank can send the check directly to you without going through probate.

<A>I have contacted the only bank I am familiar with and am in the process of getting any information I can from them.

You need to ask sis to give you an accounting of the cash assets she knows about so far and see how she will react and you also need to ask her if the will has been filed in court yet. And if she won't give you information, ask if she has power of attorney granted by mom.

<A>I rather doubt she would give me anything accurate under the circumstances. And, she did/does have power of attorney.

Thanks for responding, by the way!!! I am treding treacherous waters right now. There are actually three annuities with my name as the beneficiary, she tried to tell me that one of them was supposed to belong to her. HAH!!! She must think I was born yesterday.
 

pojo2

Senior Member
Spirit1 said:
There are actually three annuities with my name as the beneficiary, she tried to tell me that one of them was supposed to belong to her. HAH!!! She must think I was born yesterday.
So what is keeping you from claiming these Annuity funds? They are not part of the probate process and all you have to do is present a death certificate and have the funds sent to you.
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
The annuities aren't the concern. They are what they are and the beneficiary is who he/she is. I have already began process on securing the funds for those. Nothing my sister can do to stop that. The main issue for me is the additional cash assets that may be out there. We are to divide those equally. All I want to know is how much and were their any co-owners on those accounts (if any). If there are accounts out there and/or investments with no co-owership, then there is money on the table that I don't currently know about.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Hope you have access after probate is over to a probate attorney or business law attorney to find out if your state has laws against abuse of power of attorney. I fear that sis may have used it to change beneficiary designations on some assets to her name instead of the previously designated beneficiary (you or someone else) and that could be why she is slow in providing information because she doesn't want to be found out. For your sake I hope she didn't do anything illegal regarding the POA.
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
I have no way of knowing if she changed anything to her name during the course of my mom's life. However, I do have the attorney's name that is handling the legal aspects of my mother's estate. I am giving untill the end of next week for my sister to come clean with financial statements and other cash assets before I contact the attorney's office where my mother's estate is being overseen. And, you're right, I hope my sister didn't do anything underhanded or illegal. However, the more I think about this and the longer she goes without sending me full disclosure, the more I'm afraid that she may have hidden key facts about my mom's estate.

Unfortunately, I live in Iowa and the probate and estate is in Texas. Too bad, I don't have other avenues I can persue.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
You can contact the estate attorney, but don't be surprised if he is not too cooperative in giving out information, since he is biased in favor of the executor since she may have hired him and since he is working with her. You may just need to wait for probate to play out and see what will happen and then you will have a better idea of what to do after probate is finished, if you can't afford to hire your own attorney in Texas to attend the probate proceedings for you.
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
I'm thinking you're right about contacting the attorney. What I hope for is the integrity of the attorney and his desire not to involve himself in anything unsavory. Apparently there were a checking account, savings account and several CDs out there. But, my sister says she was the named beneficiary on the CDs and co-owner of the bank accounts. So, I am afraid I am out in the cold on those issues. She inadvertently told me those had nothing to do with the will and were not "payable to the estate". Basically she backed herself in the corner in her quest to get me to surrender one of the annuities to her. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the annuties named me as the beneficiary. I do think there is another "shoe to drop" over all of this. And, as Ricky Ricardo would say to Lucy..."Ju gota lota splainin to do". ;)
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
At some point your attorney is going to have to contact the bank where the CD's were held to find out if sis had originally been named beneficiary when your relative bought the CD's or whether sis used power of attorney to fill out a beneficiary designation form that changed it to her name (which is possibly illegal, depending on what that state law says about abuse of POA). If it's illegal she will have to repay those monies to the estate for distribution according to how the will instructs.
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
Dandy,
I do appreciate your attentiveness in this thread. More than you can know. Below is a direct quote from the will.

"I direct that all of the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate, including but not limited to stocks, bonds, bank accounts, and any insurance which may be payable to my estate, shall be divided into and distributed in equal shares to those of the following named persons who survive me: my daugheter, (HER NAME) and my son, (MY NAME).

The above causes me some cause for concern. I can fully understand a checking account being co-owned for payments of debt incurred. However, everything else makes me very suspicious. I can have my own allegations about this but proving it would be a monumental task that would cost a king's ransom to prove.

What I am hopeful for is that the estate attorney being honorable enough to check the distribution of the cash assets and advise my sister to do the right thing. My thinking is that he, the attorney, wouldn't want to be involved in defrauding a will or probate proceedings. It seems to me that some sort of full disclosure would be forthcoming to keep everything honest and above board.

Thanks again for your attention, Dandy. You have been fantastic.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
You are far too naive and too trusting. If sis does anything illegal, his inclination is going to be to keep quiet about it as long as he gets paid his legal fees from her and his feeling is going to be if anything has gone wrong it's up to you to find out about it--he has nothing to worry about because there is no downside for him. If she has done anything illegal, she is the one who will be facing legal charges.
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
You're exactly right. About things like this, I am too nieve. As for trusting her to do the right thing...absolutely not. But, what can I do? As far as I can see, I have no recourse. Sort of a damned if I do and damned if I don't situation. I can call the attorney and ask for full disclosure. He can refer me to her and do nothing. I can threaten to take her to court. But, I have no solid evidence and hunches only work on television and in the movies. I am going to call the attorney anyway after I have deposited the last two annuities in the bank. Then let the chips fall where they may. Sister or not, business is still business. I might be P***ing in the wind. However, nothing ventured nothing gained, I always say.
 

pojo2

Senior Member
You have to determine in your own mind how much money might be involved here, then you have to determine if it will be worth the cost of a Lawyer to look into all this for you and basically that is what it will boil down to.
 

Spirit1

Junior Member
As near as I can calculate, mentally, there may be around 50K left on the table. But, I really have no way of knowing. And, Pojo, you are absolutely right. Where I am now, in my thinking, is if it's worth persuing. Thanks.
 

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