Dishonest Sister

[calico]

My Mother passed away three weeks ago after a long illness and left behind a trust account worth nearly $325,000.00, as well as a home worth $400,000.00 Recently I discovered that my sister is the executor of the estate. She was able to encourage my sickly Mother to leave her the property in full, and divide her cash account into four shares. There are two brothers and two sisters. I am the second brother and was not notified of any financial disbursement. It turns out that my Mothers dog recieved my share with my sister as caretaker. Is this legal? What does a dog do with $76,000.00? My other siblings agree that this gesture is unfair and cruel.

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

Well, you can leave it to the individual to take care of the dog. This is a common pratice, although a bit eccentric.

Now, the problem here is your sister is an INTERESTED PARTY and if she COERCED/CAJOLED/SOMEHOW MANIPULATED YOUR MOM, her share may be voided, indeed the entire will may be voided.

Why? Because if your mom had a long illness, she may not have been able to make these decisions on her own, hence incomptent. One needs to have a SOUND MIND when writing a will to make it valid.

Even if she was competent upon writing the will, your sister had the motive and opportunity to manipulate her. So what do you do?

YOu and anyone else in the group who would like to fight the will, need to hire an estate planning lawyer to contest the will.

Make sure about no contest clauses in the will.

Try attorneypages.com or call your state bar association and ask for lawyer referral