I get the feeling that you are jumping into (or being roped into) something that you don't understand very well. I would suggest that you do an internet search with terms such as: new york probate process
Here is one hit that seems to have a good intro:
Guide for Estate Executors and Administrators - New York
Are we talking about the house that your father transferred to your brother?
If so, this is what I have been talking about with regard to an "unenviable task." You are going to have to get that transaction invalidated first for the house to become an asset of the probate estate. And who knows whatever other self-benefitting transactions your brother pulled off as your father's agent under the power of attorney.
I am getting the feeling that your brother is walking away from the will and nomination as executor willingly because he knows that there aren't any assets subject to probate - he's got them all. Anybody trying to get them back is going to have one helluva time.
Has any of this been discussed with this attorney?
I have spoken with the attorney several times before about getting this Will probated. She is trying to get the Will probated because my brother, who was, according to the Will, the Executor, never had the Will probated, and my Aunt, my Father's sister, is the one who got the ball rolling, retained the attorney, and just wants
her part of what her brother, my Father, left her in his Will.
As for the house, that was bequeathed me in the Will of 1997, yet subsequently signed over to my brother by our father in 2003, a year before he died, I may not actually get that from the Will. I guess when my Father signed his house over to my brother, he forgot he left me the house, and signed it over to him, and both their names were on the Deed to the house, and once my Father died, now only my brother's name is on the Deed. As for the $1000 my father bequeathed his 3 grandson's, well, maybe there is no $1000 to give to them
at this time. Maybe it was
at the time of his death. However, my brother didn't give it to them, nor did he ever have the Will probated so they could get their $1000 each. That's why my Aunt wants this Will probated. She knows her brother, my Father, left her something in his Will, and that is
his share of their childhood home. That's what she wants.
If the house is in fact my brother's, and I don't get it,
oh well. I have a house anyway here in NC. If my 2 sons and nephew don't get their $1000 each, then so be it. What can anyone do about it? I certainly can't make my brother give them their money if there's no money to give them, and I'm certainly not going to NY to make my brother give me the house that he and my Mother, who's 80, live in.
If my Aunt gets her share that was Willed to her by her brother, then fine. She'll be happy, and will have
her resolve. What will all this cost me? I didn't retain the attorney. My Aunt did. I haven't signed any papers, or forms making me Executor. I just told the attorney my brother said he doesn't want to be Executor anymore, and according to the Will, if he
fails, or
refuses to qualify as Executor, and it has been
7 and a half years, then it's passed on to me. What consequences, if any, am I facing here? What am I getting
roped in to? Legal fees? Attorney fees? Does the Executor have to pay the attorney even though he didn't
retain her?
I haven't signed anything.
Thank you.