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
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