What is the name of your state? Florida
Hello,
I am curious about the potential for abuse regarding a large estate with financial accounts set up for Transfer On Death... My grandfather was an estate lawyer for many many years and he insisted upon having a TOD will as the easiest method fo distributing property after he passed on. He insisted the best way of doing this would be to appoint his daughter the executor of the estate and give her power of attorney when he was incapable of representing himself. At this point there is only his daughter (our aunt) and his grandsons (us) left alive; he told us many times of his TOD will and how things would be distributed; 50% for daughter, 25% each for the 2 grandsons. The difficulty from our perspective is that our aunt is very non-communicative and quite eccentric. During his illness she refused to communicate with us and we were very sadly left in the dark about his condition and it was very difficult to speak with him directly at all. Near the end, she went so far as to withhold his location from us.
I'd like to chalk all of this up to her eccentricity - but without communication it is hard not to speculate as to her intentions.
So, my question is this - despite my grandfather's best TOD estate planning is there any possibility for abuse or on her part as the executor of the will? My brother and I live on the west coast while she and my gradfather live(d) in Florida. He had many different accounts and properties that we are not fully aware of... So, again, I don't want to believe she has bad intentions in any of this - but in case she does, I'm trying to figure out how best to protect myself and my brother from abuse.
Any advice regarding what to look out for or how to best protect ourselves at this point would be appreciated -
Thank you for your time and advice -
Hello,
I am curious about the potential for abuse regarding a large estate with financial accounts set up for Transfer On Death... My grandfather was an estate lawyer for many many years and he insisted upon having a TOD will as the easiest method fo distributing property after he passed on. He insisted the best way of doing this would be to appoint his daughter the executor of the estate and give her power of attorney when he was incapable of representing himself. At this point there is only his daughter (our aunt) and his grandsons (us) left alive; he told us many times of his TOD will and how things would be distributed; 50% for daughter, 25% each for the 2 grandsons. The difficulty from our perspective is that our aunt is very non-communicative and quite eccentric. During his illness she refused to communicate with us and we were very sadly left in the dark about his condition and it was very difficult to speak with him directly at all. Near the end, she went so far as to withhold his location from us.
I'd like to chalk all of this up to her eccentricity - but without communication it is hard not to speculate as to her intentions.
So, my question is this - despite my grandfather's best TOD estate planning is there any possibility for abuse or on her part as the executor of the will? My brother and I live on the west coast while she and my gradfather live(d) in Florida. He had many different accounts and properties that we are not fully aware of... So, again, I don't want to believe she has bad intentions in any of this - but in case she does, I'm trying to figure out how best to protect myself and my brother from abuse.
Any advice regarding what to look out for or how to best protect ourselves at this point would be appreciated -
Thank you for your time and advice -