What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington
Here is the skinny...my mother died in 2007 in Washington. She had a will dating back to 1989 and was the only will that we know of known to exist. Upon her death, me and my siblings went to Wa. and met with our stepfather to take care of things. We met at the lawyers office and was read her will. We were all VERY shocked that it was never ammended since 1989. Our grandparents left my mother a VERY sizeable estate at their deaths. It was a known fact that my grandparents did NOT want any of the proceeds from their estate(s) to go to our stepfather or his children that they so very much disliked. My mother had said thet her will was changed prior to their deaths to reflect their final wishes. Come to find out...it was not. Also, our mother was not of sound mind prior to their deaths or even prior to hers.
To this day, our mother's exact estate is an unknown to us and has never been disclosed to us. Instead we were all given a check for some $$ and sent on our ways. Our stepfather was determined to NOT have the estate go through probate. After the dust settled he was at the bank(s) VERY quickly cleaning out all of the accounts and has been on a spending spree ever since. He is VERY irresponsible when it comes to money and has been trying to buy personal happiness for almost 3 years now. Meanwhile he has absolutely NO will or trust himself.
This is not settling well with us siblings and feel we were set up at the time of her death...he knew exactly what he was doing. Basically, all her will said is that our stepfather and us 3 siblings get everything divided equally. This has NOT happened and he is less than forthcoming about anything having to do with it. He has been told that is not his to be spending and has said that he knows...but just continues to spend recklessly. We have not seen any $$ since our mothers death.
So, I think what the questions are...do we as heirs have any recourse? Can it be challenged at all? Being it didn't go through probate, is there anything we can do? Has the statute of limitations expired? We are NOT lawyers and need sound advise.
Here is the skinny...my mother died in 2007 in Washington. She had a will dating back to 1989 and was the only will that we know of known to exist. Upon her death, me and my siblings went to Wa. and met with our stepfather to take care of things. We met at the lawyers office and was read her will. We were all VERY shocked that it was never ammended since 1989. Our grandparents left my mother a VERY sizeable estate at their deaths. It was a known fact that my grandparents did NOT want any of the proceeds from their estate(s) to go to our stepfather or his children that they so very much disliked. My mother had said thet her will was changed prior to their deaths to reflect their final wishes. Come to find out...it was not. Also, our mother was not of sound mind prior to their deaths or even prior to hers.
To this day, our mother's exact estate is an unknown to us and has never been disclosed to us. Instead we were all given a check for some $$ and sent on our ways. Our stepfather was determined to NOT have the estate go through probate. After the dust settled he was at the bank(s) VERY quickly cleaning out all of the accounts and has been on a spending spree ever since. He is VERY irresponsible when it comes to money and has been trying to buy personal happiness for almost 3 years now. Meanwhile he has absolutely NO will or trust himself.
This is not settling well with us siblings and feel we were set up at the time of her death...he knew exactly what he was doing. Basically, all her will said is that our stepfather and us 3 siblings get everything divided equally. This has NOT happened and he is less than forthcoming about anything having to do with it. He has been told that is not his to be spending and has said that he knows...but just continues to spend recklessly. We have not seen any $$ since our mothers death.
So, I think what the questions are...do we as heirs have any recourse? Can it be challenged at all? Being it didn't go through probate, is there anything we can do? Has the statute of limitations expired? We are NOT lawyers and need sound advise.
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