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Self dealing Administrator?

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cheetabump

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NY/Virginia

My ex husband died w/o a will(3/2003). He lived in Va. Our 2 adult children(25&23) (NY) became heirs to 2/3rd's of his estate. The new wife is administrator and in May/ /2003 paid herself her share as beneficiary inheritance. The Commissioner of Accounts in Virginia said while it was not the best thing to do it was not totally illegal as long as she stayed within her boundaries and didn't give herself more than her fair share. She also paid her "executor fee". She has a past track record with being dishonest.

According the the last accounting(just received 7/05) and the Commissioner (said in May) the only thing left was the children's portion. Two checks in the mail arrived yesterday. The amounts are stated as 1/3 of the estate each and it looks like she might have taken 1/3 for herself. At least their checks are short by that amount. There is a new Commissioner(July) and at present the file is missing. (has been an ongoing problem with it disappearing, not sure if the original was ever found)

He is not sure what the status of anything is at this point and is very unclear as to what has transpired. He asked that we send him whatever we had for him to try to reconstruct. He doesn't know about these checks or the files we sent yet as he is presently on vacation. There was no receipt/release letter just a small scrap of ripped paper stuck in the envelope with the check asking that it be deposited before the end of August to 0 the account balance.
What is the best way to handle these checks until we get all the facts and where the "missing" amount is. There are other things on the accounting that are questionable too and we would like to address those as well. What is the best course of action at this point? Is it enough to trust that the Commissioner of Accounts will oversee this or do we need an attorney? Thank you for your time and consideration.
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
Posters assume that this message board will be reviewed by attorneys from all 50 states, when in actuality, that is not the case. Since it is most unlikely that a Virginia probate attorney will be reading this message board, you may want to consider posting alternately to www.lawguru.com.

Executor fee is Virginia is described as "reasonable compensation", which is basically a loophole that lets them charge whatever they can get away with, so you may want to find out what the actual rate is with a local Virginia probate attorney.
 

cheetabump

Junior Member
Dandy Don, Thank you for your reply. I didn't know where to post my question. Who are the lawyers that actually do read these posts? I wasn't quite sure how the forum operated.
In any case, I did email to your recommendation and got a response. We may have to file a lawsuit against the administrator if in fact it does show she paid herself the 1/3 of estate twice.
The Commissioner of Accounts requires that the inventory is done etc but does not enforce the Administrator to do the "right" thing in terms of distributions. So, it looks like we might have to hire an attorney to at least check out the facts and ensure that payments were correct.
 

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