brother will not open estate

What is the name of your state? arkansas

How can you make a sibling open up an estate.
He is paranoid and will not cooperate.
We are co-trustees.

Why don't you open probate?

Can you open probate without both trustees
in agreement?

I agree, the OP should open up probate. Also, if both are required for acts on the trust, the OP can also sue brother for breach of his fiduciary duties if there is a need for action by the trust.

With the other post, I see, yes. The trust is not directly related to probate.

geron58 said:

Can you open probate without both trustees
in agreement?

Click to expand...

Just a bit of language clarification. The person appointed by the court to be responsible for administering a probate estate is variously referred to as an executor/administrator/personal representative, depending upon what state you are in and whether there is a will or not. A trustee administers a trust.

A will only nominates the personal represetative(s). The court appoints. You may have to jump through some hoops and hold your sibling's toes to the fire to either assume the co-personal rep position or waive his/her right. But, no court is going to refuse to open probate just because one of the personal reps nominated in the will wants to diddle around. If need be, consult with an estate attorney to find out what those hoops are in Arkansas.

(What do you mean by "paranoid?" As in, has a diagnosed mental illness?)

Addition:
If it were me, I would shoot for knocking the sibling out of the estate administration completely and be the solo administrator. Co-administration can be a real pain in the best of situations. Judging by your sibling's attitude so far. you & sib might have the long knives out before it is all over.

Are you sure there are enough assets to open up an estate? When and if he does eventually provide the will you may want to scrutinize it to determine whether or not you wish to contest it and to see whether the signature looks genuine--maybe he used undue influence to create a different will from what the decedent originally intended. There could be some suspicious reason why he is not wanting probate to be opened unless he is mentally unbalanced or just being deliberately mean out of spite.

He is bi-polar and just came through a divorce and still appealling the ruling on property.
He is so afraid that his ex wife is going to get some of our parents estate,but I don't think that is possible, since they have been divorced for over a year,and Mom died 2 months ago. Everything is in trusts but several insurance policies and one bank acccount was left out so therefore the estate will have to be opened. The will is a pourover will.