• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Executors responsibilities to heirs

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

ah541

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? california

My grandmother passed away in 1989 and her will made my aunt executor. The estate is very large consisting of about 300 acres, 3 older ranch type homes, and various equipment.
The will said that everyone had to get along for 10 years and after that the estate could be sold and divided. My aunt has been living in the main house, taking care of finances and all of that.Both of my parents have passed away leaving 6 of us as heirs plus about 12 other grandchildren that are heirs as well. There are only 2 of grandmas daughters left and both have lived on the ranch. Now, the grandchildren, one of which is myself, are wanting to benefit as it has been 17 years since she passed away and no one has any use of the ranch except for the ones who live there. It would be nice if we could all have a piece of land but the property cannot be divided they said except into 3 main chunks. So, we want to sell and are all trying to work together to do that.(ha-ha).
Of course, the 2 aunts don't want to and I can see why as they are the only ones benefitting from it at present. The rest of us would like to benefit too though.

A question came up that has been on my mind and on others minds as well. Does the executor have to make available to the heirs where the money has gone for all of those years? Each year we get a paper from the accountant for tax purposes stating that there was no income, profit and it always comes out to zero. There should be rent from 2 of the homes plus farming has been done on about 100 acres. Nobody wants to start any trouble, myself included, but do the heirs have the right to talk to the partnership accountant or would that be for us to get someone separate such as a lawyer?

What kind of lawyer would that be to get info from? It is most likely going to take over a year for this to sell or maybe longer so a contingency wouldn't apply would it?
Should everyone have their own lawyer? We know of other families who have basically spent their whole inheritance on legal fees by fighting amonst themselves and want to avoid that. So, really, what was done with rent money or any income over the past years is sort of trivial compared to the sale of the ranch and division of the money among all of the heirs. What should we do? Thanks for the advice, Joyce
 


tranquility

Senior Member
See a trust and estate attorney.

An estate should not be held open this long, no matter what the wishes were of the deceased. In reality, the estate may be closed and a trust opened with the distribution from the estate with those who otherwise be heirs, now be beneficiaries. Unless the will/trust instrument was written carefully, you may be under the auspices of the probate code. If so, you are entitled to an accounting once you had rights to the estate/corpus/income. Whether the right to the accounting includes the time before you had rights is a question I'm currently asking a judge to determine.

It seems unlikely that aunt has not breached some fiduciary duties. See an attorney, but it seems you are going to have to manage family issues as carefully as legal ones.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Was your mother named as a beneficiary in the will?

Did your mother receive anything from this estate while she was alive?

If you have not already done so, you need to visit the county courthouse to look at the probate file to see exactly how the estate was handled and what the assets were.

You should have been consulting a probate attorney back in 1999 when the executor failed to sell and divide the estate. Now you will need to hire a probate attorney to consult and after he/she looks at the probate file can determine how you should proceed. He will need to look at the provision to sell and divide the estate in 1999 to see if that provision is enforceable.

You may have some status as an heir of your mother's to be able to ask for a forced sale.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

gcas

Junior Member
I am (ugh) in my 4th family probate in California, and have since converted 10 aged family members to living trusts carefully avoiding probate, hallelujiah, but I have found that first, all records of the probate are available to you in the courthouse, they are public record, make copies of anything you feel relevent.

The CA probate code is here;

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/index.cfm?title=seven

and you will want to check your local county rules, which are also generally available online.

Once an estate in Cali is formally probated, there are time limits / frames that an executor has to comply with (usually 12-18 months, unless wrangling with the court is invoked), and I have found that you can save thousands and at times tens of thousands by taking 10-20 hours to educate yourself on the process and ins and outs, prior and during attorney consultation. nolo at nolopress.com has several books in the $100 or less range that are good for a layperson to familiarize themselves with the chores to come.

The probate process is good for and designed to accomodate the legal professions, but not so nice on the pocketbook of heirs, beneficiaries and the lonesome executors that are generally family members and who do not request/add fees on top of the processes.

LOL, educate yourself, be persistent, you will persevere!
 

ah541

Junior Member
RE:executors responsibilities to heirs

First of all, thanks for all of the great info and websites to get more info.

The immediate heir was my father who was one of 9 heirs. he passed away first and my mom divided up his 1/9 among 6 of us plus there were 3 children from another marriage.
My mom didn't benefit at all from it. My father's other brothers and sisters who were alive at the time he passed away tried to make my mom just give my father's share back into the trust and she wouldn't and made it a point to make us all heirs. We didn't know about it until my mom passed away in 2000 and looking through her stuff, we found it. I guess that all of the children of the 9 original heirs are the ones who will benefit. Ok, now I know where to begin. Thanks to all of you again. J.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top