Are "gifts" considered property of the estate? Wisconsin

[karly2138]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Wisconsin

This is messy with lots of issues, but I am just presenting one of the issues in this post.

My elderly mother died. The will states that all personal property is to be divided in equal shares between the 4 siblings, "by agreement." If we cannot reach agreement, the P.R. has to make final decisions.

My (abusive) brother is named as the P.R. - not yet appointed by the court. He and my sister have already been taking and distributing property of the estate. They have stated (my siblings) that any items originally given to mom as gifts will automatically be returned to the giver - they are not considered part of the property of the estate to be divided among the heirs as outlined in the will.

The will does not distinguish between property received as gifts and other property. Not only do I not agree with the premise about gifts, I also have no way of knowing if everything they have already taken was, indeed, a gift.

Any thoughts on the issue of gifts, and whether this premise by my siblings is normal, not normal, acceptable or not? My lawyer thinks it is odd, but she doesn't seem overly concerned about it.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

 

[pburchett]

Gifts

I reside in a different state, but was told that gifts are now estate property. Items loaned/borrowed should be returned to their rightful owner...

 

[GaAtty]

GaAtty

Presumably your brother is the Personal Representative because the will appoints him so (you did not say). However, if he is already misappropriating estate assets, then you should speak up to the court or get an attorney to do so and object to him as executor before the court approves him. Gifts to the deceased,if made before death, are just as much their property as any thing else they own. Your siblings are wrong. The attorney probably thinks that the property is not of much value, but I would wonder why they are doing this. My guess it that your mother received a gift of some value prior to her death (maybe given by these siblings) and someone wants it back. Just a guess.

 

[karly2138]

Thanks for your replies. GaAtty, you are right, my brother was named by the will as PR. The court date was last week but, through my attorney, I offered up a proposal for the process surrounding division of property and said that if my brother would agree to it, or if we could come to some agreement around it, then I would not object. He made himself unavailable to even have the conversation and the court commissioner adjourned the hearing until tomorrow in order to allow us to come to an agreement. He again made himself completely unavailable until today and now has said that he will not agree to it. My atty feels that I do not have enough to prevail in an objection - although he has distributed property, I don't know exactly WHAT property. And although he has been abusive to me over the years, I don't have any concrete evidence to show the court. So.... with the court predisposed to appoint him since he is named in the will, we have agreed not to object. However, we have asked for a full inventory of all the property of the estate, and my attorney says he is bound by law to comply with that request. Also, we will not hesitate to raise objections down the line if he does not do what he is supposed to do.

At any rate, the bottom line is that he is getting away with theft and there is little to nothing I will be able to do about it. But I am glad that I made the attempt. You are also right that there was at least one, and I think more like 3, very very expensive "gifts" given to Mom for the express purposes of getting them back now.

My brother claims that "I" am the problem, and that I have a history of being so. He claims that I "made trouble" over my father's will. Apparently, the trouble to which he refers is the fact that 15 years ago I was completely ignorant of my rights and I was refused even a copy of the will. I didn't see the will until 18 months after his death, when I finally made a stink about it. By that time, it was all said and done and I did attempt, unsuccessfully, to get them to backtrack. So I guess if that is "making trouble," then I am guilty as charged.

Thanks again for the input. This has been a helpful forum.