ATTEN. J.R. Gottlieb in Illinois

Thank you for responding. You were the only person who did. You did not answer all my questions however, so I still "need to know". I will go into more detail.

The Father died during the divorce of his only child, his son the lawyer. During the son's deposition it was admitted that there was a will but that he did not receive anything. This was about THREE YEARS AGO,
and the will still is not filed? The lawyer who drafted the will is a long time friend of the family. He also represented the son during his divorce. The fact that it still is not filed is very suspicious. That is why I ask if there was a way to legally hide it?

If you will be so kind, I now have another question. Am I to understand that the whole and entire will, even though the father and mother have only one will for the two of them, is filed and subject to public record?

Thank you for your prompt reply
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Again, it is not legal to "hide" a Will after death. Illinois statute requires that a decedent's will be filed w/i 30 days after death.

Are you sure that there is only one will created and signed by both of them? That sound slike a joint & mutual wills, which in my experience is very uncommon. But, yes I would think that the whole will would need to be filed. I guess if you couls separate out the part that only applies to the surviving spouse, then maybe you could excise those parts, but nonetheless, a will still must be filed.

More importantly though, are there still assets in the decedent's sole name. If there are, and if they exceed $50,000, then the only way to ever transfer these is to file the will and open a probate estate. There is no statute of limitations for this, it can still be done if it is necessary.

Kind Sir, Thank you for your speedy replies!
I'm signing off now and will definitely keep you in mind should I persue this.

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