What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Missouri
My mother recently passed away and I have just learned that my uncle was left a POD bank account with $300,000.00 in it. The will which was made in 1998 by my father (who is deceased) is vague and appoints my uncle as the excutor and states that all property should be divided equally between my sister and myself if my mother is not living, but does not give any guidelines about it is to be divided. Nothing was said about the bank accounts.
We believe it is possible that this money was put into POD to my uncle recently after my mother's mind was affected by all the many medications she was on at that time. She was not of sound mind most of the time during the last few weeks of her life. We found out by accident that a lawyer visited the house but our uncle claims she was trying to take my sister and myself off the will, no doubt to leave everything to him. We believe he is not acting in our best interests and is trying to get all he can for himself. I do not believe my mother would have done anything like this of her free will had she not been under some type of influence.
If the POD account was signed over to him at her death and it was done in 2005 after my father's death as my uncle claims, and not done the last few weeks while she was living, do we have any recourse or grouds to contest the POD left to my uncle? Also is this POD account money considered part of the estate and if so, shouldn't that money be divided equally between me and my sister?
My parents have already given my aunt and uncle a great deal of money and benefits while they were living. They supported them completely the past 30 years and provided a house for them to live in while paying the taxes and insurance on the house and paid them a weekly salary for 30 year and never questioned what work was actually getting done. He took care of various little things and did some paperwork, but nothing that ammounted to much.
In addition, my uncle has also asked us for a 10 acre peice of property for his services as the executor of the will. Also he has been able to write checks on their buisness account for the past 30 years without showing any kind of records as to where the money was going. He now has some valuable items in his possesion that he claims he is holding for us until the estate is settled but we can not have access to the items or my mother's house and he will not give us a key. How do we know he is going to produce all the items and not keep some for himself?
Cindy
My mother recently passed away and I have just learned that my uncle was left a POD bank account with $300,000.00 in it. The will which was made in 1998 by my father (who is deceased) is vague and appoints my uncle as the excutor and states that all property should be divided equally between my sister and myself if my mother is not living, but does not give any guidelines about it is to be divided. Nothing was said about the bank accounts.
We believe it is possible that this money was put into POD to my uncle recently after my mother's mind was affected by all the many medications she was on at that time. She was not of sound mind most of the time during the last few weeks of her life. We found out by accident that a lawyer visited the house but our uncle claims she was trying to take my sister and myself off the will, no doubt to leave everything to him. We believe he is not acting in our best interests and is trying to get all he can for himself. I do not believe my mother would have done anything like this of her free will had she not been under some type of influence.
If the POD account was signed over to him at her death and it was done in 2005 after my father's death as my uncle claims, and not done the last few weeks while she was living, do we have any recourse or grouds to contest the POD left to my uncle? Also is this POD account money considered part of the estate and if so, shouldn't that money be divided equally between me and my sister?
My parents have already given my aunt and uncle a great deal of money and benefits while they were living. They supported them completely the past 30 years and provided a house for them to live in while paying the taxes and insurance on the house and paid them a weekly salary for 30 year and never questioned what work was actually getting done. He took care of various little things and did some paperwork, but nothing that ammounted to much.
In addition, my uncle has also asked us for a 10 acre peice of property for his services as the executor of the will. Also he has been able to write checks on their buisness account for the past 30 years without showing any kind of records as to where the money was going. He now has some valuable items in his possesion that he claims he is holding for us until the estate is settled but we can not have access to the items or my mother's house and he will not give us a key. How do we know he is going to produce all the items and not keep some for himself?
Cindy