Finding out if beneficiary is totally honest

[willoplege]

I am in Alabama. My father was an only child and had 5 children by one woman. He passed away before both of his parents (my Grandparents). My mother & father were divorced before he passed away. Soon after my father died my Grandparents became ill. My Grandmother passed away and left my Grandfather all alone. He had no one to take care of him because the grandchildren had no way to do it my Mother offered instead of a nursing home. She became power of attorney over his finances. He recently passed about 7 months ago and his will stated that everything be left to my Mother. The will was set up as a small estate (under $2,500). But me and my brother were told about a CD for $100,000 by my grandfather and my mother that was to be devided among the 5 grandchildren. So, how do we find what really happened to this money. Mother has given us her explanation of where the money went but it's hard to swallow since she has a brand new house and is sending our youngest sister to a major college and bought her a car and my stepfather takes off a week here and there from work and is not worried about bills getting paid. So my question is should we be able to take this info to a lawyer and find out what really happened to the money and possibly get what we were told or not? If the will was set up as a small estate then this money was not included in that right? He also owned a pickup truck that was worth at least $10,000, so was this not included in the will either? I just don't understand how his estate could be considered that small if his property such as the truck was worth more than $2,500 + his checking account and a few other assets he had. Please tell me if it would be worth taking this to a lawyer or not. I am so confused.

 

[advisor10]

01-08-2000

Your message indicates that you have seen or read the will, but in addition, what you really need to do is to go down to the county courthouse (the county of the city where the person died) and see if the will has been filed for probate. If it has, then there could be other documents in the file that show how the financial affairs of the estate were handled (it might mention the $100,000 CD or at least the bank where it was located, or it MIGHT NOT mention that CD if it had been held in trust, as trust account matters are done privately and are not on public record and do not have to be included as part of the estate).

If the executor has not finished handling all matters of the estate, then the will probably has not been filed yet and can take anywhere from 1 month or over 1 year before she files it with the court, whenever she is finished.

You are right to be concerned about the mother's spending habits if you think that the will has assets of over $2,500.00. You really need to concentrate on finding out any evidence of the CD--do you know what bank the father had has account at and may have had the CD at? Is the CD specifically mentioned in the will or was it just a rumor?
A lot may depend on how the CD was written--your father may have made a mistake by not putting the 5 children's name as beneficiaries of the CD, and it may have unintentionally been included as an asset of the estate, which the mother could then divide however she wants.

But if he mentions in the will that he intended for the 5 children to be beneficiaries, then your mother could be prosecuted for misappropriation of funds or fraud if it can be proven that she did not distribute the children's fair share of money to them.

You really do need to speak with an estate/probate attorney in the same city or state where the father died. The first session will probably be free, where you explain your sitation. It would DEFINITELY be worth it to have this matter checked into. It just might be possible to have your mother's bank accounts examined to see the size of the checks that have passed through her account within the past year.

SINCERELY,

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