Releasing of funds from probate

[Lucy Ball]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? California
My father in law died 13 months ago. There was not a will. We immediately hired an attorney and put it into probate. My husband is the administrator. He has 2 brothers out of state and a sister here. There were 2 houses which needed a lot of work and have have been finished and are sold. One of the houses already closed escrow and the other is due to close the end of July, (this week). The checks for the houses are made out to my husband. He has not cashed either yet. The 4 siblings want to take a portion evenly for each of them and leave a substantial amount in the account to cover the cost of attorney & administrator fees and anything else that might need to be paid. Then once the court releases the funds and all debts are satisfied they will divide up whats left between the 4 of them. Our attorney is saying we can not divide up any of the money before the court date. Is this a law or what would happen if the siblings did this. If we wouldn't have hired an attorney and did it on our own the siblings would have handled it this way. The 4 siblings are in agreeance on everything. How could this affect anything and would they get in trouble with the courts. I always thought that probate court was more of a referee?

 

[Dandy Don]

Were the checks made payable to your husband as administrator (does the word administrator or executor appear on the payee line) or just as a private individual/heir involved with the sale?

He needs to set up an account for the estate only for deposit of such items.

Big mistake to distribute or spend any monies prematurely. He could lose his position because of it--this is abuse. Surely you all can wait a few months for probate to be completed.

 

[Lucy Ball]

State of California. The checks are only in my husbands name. There is already an account set up in my husbands and his brothers name that they have been using for the past year to pay bills and refurbish the houses. We were all just wondering if everyone was in agreeance if any monies could be distributed making sure enough was left for fees, etc. Sure everyone could wait. We were given some info by our attorney that was apparently misunderstood. It was understood that he said that probate would finish 6 weeks after the 2nd house went into escrow which would be the middle of August but now he's saying 8 weeks after escrow closes. The sister has already moved up north living with her mom waiting the money to buy a place, one brother is in desperate financial stress and was trying to avoid borrowing anymore against his home and we have bought a home and are moving out of state and our home is set to close escrow Sept 1st. Now since we all sort of jumped the gun thinking it was closing soon we are in a bind. That is why they all want to take some of there allotment to ease the bind. Of course we don't want any trouble. We all thought that since the estate is kind of a slam dunk with no fights or debt problems that if they each took some of there allotment it would be okay. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer us.

 

[Lucy Ball]

The checks were made out to my husbands name administer to the estate of his dads name. I double checked that since my last response. Does this make a difference?