Personal representative

[sdreyer]

What is the name of your state? MO

How do I make sure my sister does not become the personal rep for my mother's estate? Before my mom died she appointed me POA will this have any leverage with the probate courts as far as mom's trust ?

 

[nextwife]

What is the name of your state? MO

How do I make sure my sister does not become the personal rep for my mother's estate? Before my mom died she appointed me POA will this have any leverage with the probate courts as far as mom's trust ?

POA ceases at death. Is there a will? The will usually names the party whom the decedant chose for PR.

 

[mdconnor]

What is the name of your state? MO

How do I make sure my sister does not become the personal rep for my mother's estate? Before my mom died she appointed me POA will this have any leverage with the probate courts as far as mom's trust ?

Junior member's thoughts,
The POA is not in effect since your Mother died and means little in the courts.
The trust should name the trustee.
Your other thread --
Your Mother's friend listed on the account may have more rights to that account then you.
I would keep a separate account for your Mother's expenses until the house sells.
Mingling finances usually creates a problem.

 

[sdreyer]

I know the POA is no good at this time and there is no will in place. I am hoping I will have some leverage as far as who of the 3 of us mom trusted since my sisters were reviewing their wish list for mom's money the day after she died.

With mom's bank account my wish is to have a seperate account for us as a bill account with nothing but mom's money ( her friend is willing to close out the account and my name is on the account too) but my sisters are money hungry and want their hands on the cash now.

 

[mdconnor]

With mom's bank account my wish is to have a seperate account for us as a bill account with nothing but mom's money ( her friend is willing to close out the account and my name is on the account too) but my sisters are money hungry and want their hands on the cash now.

Are your sisters on the account also? If not, they have little say about it.

 

[sdreyer]

NO WAY are my sisters on the account they would have robbed my mom blind. I just want to do what is legally right with the account.. their theory is that if the money is out of the bank we don't ever have to tell the court it exsisted so no estate tax. .which in my book is fraud but not in their eyes. ... Can you tell we don't get along all that well

 

[Zigner]

What is the total value of the estate?

 

[anteater]

Then get on down to the probate court and apply to open probate and for appointment as administrator. Seize the ground that you want to defend and force your sisters to attack if they want to.

If your sisters are not account owners or estate administrators and can get their hands on the bank account, then there is something very wrong at that bank.

 

[anteater]

NO WAY are my sisters on the account they would have robbed my mom blind. I just want to do what is legally right with the account.. their theory is that if the money is out of the bank we don't ever have to tell the court it exsisted so no estate tax. .which in my book is fraud but not in their eyes. ... Can you tell we don't get along all that well

What Zigner is getting at is.... Unless your mom's estate is valued at more than $2 million, there is no federal estate tax. And Missouri has no estate or inheritance tax.

As to the bank account, by law, you and the friend may well be the owners now. But, I have never heard anybody getting into trouble for considering a joint account to be the sole property of the deceased and handling it as such through probate.

 

[sdreyer]

What Zigner is getting at is.... Unless your mom's estate is valued at more than $2 million, there is no federal estate tax. And Missouri has no estate or inheritance tax.

As to the bank account, by law, you and the friend may well be the owners now. But, I have never heard anybody getting into trouble for considering a joint account to be the sole property of the deceased and handling it as such through probate.

Her estate is no where near the $2 mil level she had about $13k in the bank and owns a house worth about $162,00 , a car worth about $3k and a boat worth about $2k and that's it.. she led a pretty simple life.. the sucky thing about all of this is she was diagnosed only 10 weeks ago with metastatic breast cancer and had appointments to have all of this taken care of and ended up in the hospital and died before any of it was taken care of. I am glad it is in probates hands so that my sisters have to take what the judge says they can have an no more. .. I would file for the probate but my sister ransacked mom's house and took all the titles to everything and is supposed to be having her friend who she says is a probate attorney ( we will see) take care of things. I am meeting with this person tomorrow with my full list of questions. Normally someone's estate like this would be pretty simple but it isn't the main estate that is the issue my money hungry sisters are after the $13k in the bank and split 3 ways is only a little over $4k so I don't get it.

Thank you all for your help !

 

[anteater]

OK, it is up to you. But, it is could be that sister is planning to have this friend prepare the paperwork to have sister appointed as administrator while retaining the friend as her attorney. Which I thought you wanted to avoid.

You can always mess with their minds by maintainng that the bank account now belongs to you and mom's friend by operation of law. If nothing else, that is something to hold over their heads as a bargaining chip.