Mad as hell - help!

What is the name of your state? Kentucky

My great grandmother died back in Feb of this year. My uncle was named executor of this will who beneficiaries included my mother, brother and I.

My uncle was livid and very mad that my brother and I were named in the
Will - all of us equals. We did not want him to have control over my grandmother's assets. We were advised by the lawyer who wrote the Will that when my uncle goes to file, we would be notified by probate and have a chance to protest. We never received any notices. If they sent out any notices, we would not have received them due to the fac that our addresses on the Will were several years old which my uncle KNEW.

Do we have any recourse for not being notified?

After 6 months of my uncle being the personal rep...August, he has refused to distribute the estate because he is upset how the Will was written (left his 10 month old daughter out of the Will). Here is it in November and my uncle still hasn't done anything with the Will...not that he doesn't have the time. The assets have been all taken care of and the funds sit there in the bank under his name. He hasn't file anything in court to "add a beneficiary" or to "contest" the Will although he told us to expect such filing at the end of August.

Under KY law, my brother and I are required to pay state inheritance tax cause we are considered "class B" people i.e. great grandchildren. Now, the law also states that if we pay the taxes within 9 months after the death, we get a 5% discount. If probate lasts longer than 18 months. We have to pay a penalty and interest on those taxes.

With the Will not being contested and my uncle holding the money hostage out of anger, is there anything we can do to get that money disbursed?

Our personal lawyer filed a "demand of notice" back in May. Our estate lawyer and my uncle have yet to comply. This is a very small estate...only $132K approx. so it is not difficult to comply with.

How long do they get? Can we file another one with the court? Can I do it myself?

When my uncle went to probate in Feb, he filed "household goods" as unknown. But when he filed an Inventory Report in June, he excluded the household goods in the inventory section which amount to over $3000. By not listing those goods, this allowed his father to go into the house and steal items and give many items of value away to his tenants for free.

Is that legal? Isn't that grounds for removal? Do you have to have a lawyer to remove an executor?

Thanks

Trent

Why can't your personal lawyer advise you about what your next step should be? Have you been able to attend any of the probate court hearings about this estate? Somehow at the next scheduled hearing, if this probate is still open, the attorney needs to inform the judge that this personal representative is stalling with no reasonable explanation, which could be a breach of duty.

In KY the probate proceedure is very simple.

Person dies...someone becomes PR...gotta turn in one inventory report after 3 months of becoming PR...then 2 years from becoming PR...you have 2 years untill probate closes.

There are NO "hearings" to attend. We would have attended the first one when my uncle was trying to obtain the PR but we were not informed by the court system...something we were suppose to be.

Our lawyer absolutely STINKS. We have paid him $3K so far and accomplished NOTHING except to pay for his education i.e. "research." He has told us so much stuff that has turned out not to be true a few months later.

For an example: He told me back in July that my uncle has to distribute the money after 6 months if nothing is holding up the estate which nothing is. He said we can file in court to force him to distribute the money. Well, August rolls around and he said we will give him two more weeks...it's now Sept. He then tells me in Sept that we cannot do anything.

Practically everything he has said has turned out to be untrue. We feel very mislead and now $3K in more debt and he hasn't accomplished a damn thing for us.

We wanted to file papers to get my uncle thrown off as executor because he allowed his dad to steal property out of my grandmothers house. Despite his dad telling me he took things and my uncle telling my roommate his dad took things...according to my lawyer...that is not evidence. We have an appraisal of stuff missing (given away for free). It took our lawyer 4 weeks to draw up such papers and said it was taking long because in 30 years this has "never been done." It's complicated and he had to consort with his father who owns the law firm.

This lawyer was all gun ho when we got him and turns out to be a runt who does nothing but bills us. Turns out he knew absolutely nothing about probate and estates. I had to correct him on law about some things.

Trent