I need advice

What is the name of your state? missouri . My Uncle died a yr and a half ago and he gave power of attorney to 2 friends of his.Also he gave them a sum of money! My cousin is the personal rep for the estate.He now wants to sue my Uncles friends for the money he gave them.There was approx $150,000 dollars in his estate and he gave a PARTIAL distribution to the heirs in the amount of $75,000 in March.There is $75,000 left and the majority of the heirs dont want him to sue and use up our inheritance.If our uncle wanted to give them money it was his to give.Do we have any rights in this matter? Or can the personal representive do whatever he wants with our money?His mother was one of the heirs and has died,now he is an heir along with being the personal representive. Please help...Thanks

He needs to probate the monies that are left so that it can be distributed to the heirs. Is he getting legal advice from an attorney? He can not use that money for anything else.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

Dear Dandy Don:
Thank you for the reply.My cousin was a lawyer and he has a friend of his working with him on this matter who was a lawyer because my cousin knows nothing about probate so he is the personal rep..He refused to meet with us and we have no idea how much his fee is or anything else.We told him we wanted to end this and distribute the rest of the money to the heirs.I guess he thinks he can hold the money until he does what he wants to do about sueing those friends of my uncle. And use our money to do it!We really dont know what to do about it,he is in a win win situation,the longer he takes the more we will owe him and the lawyer.Please advise,and thank you very much...

Has the will even been submitted for probate?? If it has been, then you need to be consulting your own attorney and attending the probate hearings to keep abreast of what is going on. If it hasn't been started yet, get probate opened up yourself so whether the will is available or if there is no will, probate can get started! Brother and his attorney will have to evaluate the situation further to see whether any violation or abuse of power of attorney occurred, but that is completely separate from and different from probate..

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

Thanks again for responding.Yes ,probate has started,there was no will.We have no idea why they made a partial distribution instead of all of it.Also dont know why the holdup on the rest of the money.We think he is under the impression he can use whats left to sue those people but thanks to you I know he cant.One more question,why would the court only give a partial distribution? Could he have told them something to mess things up?Now we have a family feud going on and we didnt want it to come to this.Should we hire our own attorney? We feel a good probate attorney would have had this over in 6 months.Thank you again for your help,we really appreciate it.
Jerry in Independence Mo