Disagreement between Will and Trust Executors

[dnmir]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My brother left his estate (his house) to me and Mrs. X. I am Executor of his Will and she is Executor of his Trust. As Personal Representative I agreed to take charge of paying the bills and Mrs. X agreed to pay her half at the close of Probate. My brother and I had Joint Accounts which I used to pay for the burial expenses, bills sent to my brother after his death, and other bills involving the selling of the house.
After sending her a list of the payments I made, Mrs. X chose to pay only the bills involving the house. She claims the Joint Account I had with my brother was part of the estate and should be used to pay for his bills and his burial.
Is there anything I can do to get what she owes me short of a lawsuit?

 

[JETX]

Is there anything I can do to get what she owes me short of a lawsuit?

Yes. Some options are:
1) Hold your breath until.... until she agrees with your version.
2) Hold her head under water.... until she agrees with your version.
3) Take one of her children as a hostage.... until she agrees with your version.
4) Stand outside her house with a bullhorn and yell at her.... until she agrees with your version.
5) Send a bunch of flying monkeys to bring her to you.... until she agrees with your version.

Or, you can just take your entire issue a local attorney who will, after reviewing all the FACTS... tell you which of you is correct.

 

[TrustUser]

it may be that neither one of you is correct.

1) assets in a living trust are not exempt from paying bills. so i doubt if her version is correct.

2) with joint accounts, how much is considered his and how much is yours ? i would think that a fair assumption is that half of the money was already owned by you.

the following is not a legal opinion. it is one based upon what i think would be fair. assuming that the only assets were the house and the joint accounts, i would assign a percent of ownership to the trust and the accounts, and have them pay, respectively.

so let's say that the amount of the accounts owned by your brother was $25,000. and the appraisal on the house was $75,000. since these 2 sets of assets do not have the same beneficiary, i would have the trust pay 75% of the estate bills, and the accounts pay 25% of the estate bills.

this is just some food for thought that you might be able to approach mrs. x with, without having to deal with attorneys at all.

i think if you take the advice of seeing a lawyer, that both of you will find that the situation is not as cut and dry as either of you think it is. and if you can both approach it in this way, you may be able to come up with a compromise that is agreeable to the both of you.

 

[Zigner]

And I'm going to disagree with both of the above...well, maybe not Jet because I don't think he expressed an opinion on this:

The money in the account most likely became 100% the OP's upon the passing of the brother. As such, he spent 100% of HIS money on the funeral expenses and can reasonably expect to be FULLY reimbursed from the estate. The fact that he is willing to accept half of what he's entitled makes it better for the estate, as OP will, in the long run, actually be losing 25% of the amount to which he's entitled.

 

[TrustUser]

hi zigner,

i am curious as to the legal answer. i was actually trying to give what i thought was a fair answer.

if you are correct, though - mrs. x has no reason whatsoever to go along. which is gonna force attorneys and fees.

here is a question for you, that pertains to this. lets say that someone dies. all they own is a bunch of joint accounts. according to your "most likely" version, everything would be automatically owned by someone else at the time of passing.

would the creditors have no legal recourse ?

i am not trying to be argumentative with your position - rather working with you as a team member in weighing the facts and coming to a correct conclusion.

 

[TrustUser]

the following would agree with zigner.

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