S
SRMacedo
Guest
What is the name of your state? California
My mother passed away in June of 1995, and her brother, my Uncle was appointed to be the administrator of the Estate by myself, and my 2 siblings. My mother died intestate, and her brother was a Corporate Attorney for Exxon in the past. We felt there was no other choice. Anyway, my mother had two houses, a business (gift shop), several bank accounts, one an IRA which I was the benefactor of, and a Certificate of Deposit Account. The later is the account that I have concerns and questions about. This account was in the name of my mother, intrust for my son (who was and still is a minor). At the time of her death, there was roughly $53,000.00 in this account. When the entire family met with the Probate Attorney to appoint my Uncle as Administrator, I brought up this account, and was told that it was not considered to be part of the estate. This account for my son should have gone straight to me, to have set up in another trust account for my son without my mothers name on it.
Instead, about one year after mom's death, I bought a house. I had to ask my Uncle for the bank account information so I could take care of transfering these funds and using a portion of them for my down payment, which was to be paid back to my son with interest when the estate finally closed. He managed to call the Bank of America in Clearlake from the Bay Area, and have the C.D. held in trust for my son transferred into the Estate account which was also held at Bank of America. I don't have absolute proof that his legal knowledge and language played a major role in accomplishing this fraudulent task, but he was not entitled to these funds, and I feel he embezzeled from the estate. I finally hired an attorney to fight him and recover my sons trust account in late 1998. Four years after my mother passed away I finally got what was left in the Smith Barney account my Uncle had set up. He managed to convince my Attorney that I would have squandered the money away and that he would not release the account unless control of these funds were in the Courts hands.
First of all, out of the three children my mother had, I was the one closest to her. I rented her second house which was 5 away from the house she lived in, we ate dinner together every night the past 5 years prior to her death, therefore I knew and understood perfectly well what she wanted to see the money spent on. It was education, and only education.
I wanted my hired Attorney to file criminal charges as well as sue my Uncle for the lost interest, however my Uncle managed to talk my attorney into agreeing to drop all fees and penalties as well as any criminal charges against him as long as he released every cent in this Mutual Fund account he set up. My attorney agreed, without my consent, and without asking to see some type of documentation stating what the balance was in the account. She was faxed the initial opening activities by both Smith Barney and my Uncle. After they made this agreement, we recovered only $43,000.00 out of the $54,000.00. The original account my mother had set up was only making about 4% every 6 months, but these funds were left sitting in the Estate account for over 2 years not earning a dime before they were reinvested into the Mutual Funds by the Administrator. My attorney set up an account for my son at the local bank we both agreed upon. The $41,000.00 that was left was deposited into a 1 year Certificate of Deposit which comes due every May 19th. To my knowledge, no taxes were ever paid or filed on my sons behalf while the Administrator was handeling moms estate. The heirs never even got to see the prepared final Income taxes of my mothers estate because then we would be able to prove my Uncle was skimming rather large amounts of money from the estate and us.
My son suffers from ADHD as well as learning disabilities, and the Public School system is failing my child severely. I asked the Judge to rule that I would be entitled to withdraw a specific amount out of this account at maturity each and every year for the purpose of paying for private schooling for my son. He did, however, one year after setting up this account, the only Private School located in this side of the County was not educating any better than the public schools. So when the deposit matured, I petitioned the court to release $2,500.00 to me for the purchase of a new computer and educational software that would impliment his education with added home studies. My requests were granted at a cost of $300.00 to the attorney for typing up the papers. I am totally disabled from an on the job injury sustained while working in the capacity as a Correctional Officer with the County of Lake. The fee of $300.00 which I was required to pay the Attorney for copying my documents onto her pleading letterhead paper was way out of line. I barely could afford it. Since my son earned $1,400.00+\- that year, I also filed his taxes and was required to pay over $200.00 in tax and preperation fees one month before the deposit reached maturity. I refused taking the court approved amount out of the account prior to maturity as the early withdrawal fees were quite excessive, and I felt that my child had already lost over $10,000.00 while my Uncle was controlling his money.
I've done nothing that would resemble squandering where my chids trust fund is concerned, unlike my Uncle. My question is: Can Bank of America be held responsible for transferring this account into the Estate account when it was NO part of the Estate and the Administrator had no Legal rights to the funds? Did I mention that the Branch closed shortly after the funds were transferred? I've tried getting information from Bank of America over the phone, but because the Branch had closed and moved out of the area, nobody could give me any information. All of the accounts were given new account numbers that matched the Branch in Lakeport. Since incompetence has been demonstrated by the Administrator of the Estate in regards to this trust fund, I feel it is safe to say that the same has more than likely been done with the assets of the Estate. How does one hold the Administrator responsible, and at the same time obtain all of the documents removed from the Estate as well as created while in his control? I know the Real Estate was under valued by him, and what happened to the funds of the Business? All of the merchandise was paid for by my mother. We were told that the Business took a huge loss. How come the completed tax returns were never shown to us to review? There has to be some type of law that would allow me alone, or with my siblings to have the Accounting records reviewed by the courts.
Lastly, is there any way I can have control of my sons trust account changed from being Court Controlled to being controlled by the Legal Guardian/Parent? I am not in a financial position to afford the Attorney fees incurred just to ask reimbursement of the Income Taxes paid each year, let alone the fact that waiting until May when the account matures to withdraw funds for private education is too late in the year. My child needs to have some intervention now or he may never make it out of Junior High School. I could enroll him into Sylvan online, which is an excellent program that focuses on his learning disabilities and teaches using various proven methods allowing the student to learn in spite of the disabilities. This program costs about $500.00 to be assessed and enroll, then it's around $50.00 per hour with an average of 8 hours per week spent by each student.
I only want the best for my son, and I feel as though I have failed him as a parent because I cannot provide him with the specialized education he requires. What good does it do to save these funds held in trust for a minor, that were intended to be used on Higher Education if the minor will never pass the 8th grade as long as he is kept in his current situation? How many young men return to high school at the age of 25? None! If I don't find a way to help him now, all the money in the world won't do him any good later on.
Any advice or guidance you could provide me with would be extremely appreciated. As I stated earlier, I am disabled and trying to provide for my two children, ages 11 and 12, with Social Security Disability Income. Each month gets harder and harder to pull it off! I earn barely enough to pay the monthly bills, anything additional (like shoes) will not fit into the budget no matter what way I try to squeeze it in.
Thank you agian,
Susan Macedo
My mother passed away in June of 1995, and her brother, my Uncle was appointed to be the administrator of the Estate by myself, and my 2 siblings. My mother died intestate, and her brother was a Corporate Attorney for Exxon in the past. We felt there was no other choice. Anyway, my mother had two houses, a business (gift shop), several bank accounts, one an IRA which I was the benefactor of, and a Certificate of Deposit Account. The later is the account that I have concerns and questions about. This account was in the name of my mother, intrust for my son (who was and still is a minor). At the time of her death, there was roughly $53,000.00 in this account. When the entire family met with the Probate Attorney to appoint my Uncle as Administrator, I brought up this account, and was told that it was not considered to be part of the estate. This account for my son should have gone straight to me, to have set up in another trust account for my son without my mothers name on it. Instead, about one year after mom's death, I bought a house. I had to ask my Uncle for the bank account information so I could take care of transfering these funds and using a portion of them for my down payment, which was to be paid back to my son with interest when the estate finally closed. He managed to call the Bank of America in Clearlake from the Bay Area, and have the C.D. held in trust for my son transferred into the Estate account which was also held at Bank of America. I don't have absolute proof that his legal knowledge and language played a major role in accomplishing this fraudulent task, but he was not entitled to these funds, and I feel he embezzeled from the estate. I finally hired an attorney to fight him and recover my sons trust account in late 1998. Four years after my mother passed away I finally got what was left in the Smith Barney account my Uncle had set up. He managed to convince my Attorney that I would have squandered the money away and that he would not release the account unless control of these funds were in the Courts hands.
First of all, out of the three children my mother had, I was the one closest to her. I rented her second house which was 5 away from the house she lived in, we ate dinner together every night the past 5 years prior to her death, therefore I knew and understood perfectly well what she wanted to see the money spent on. It was education, and only education.
I wanted my hired Attorney to file criminal charges as well as sue my Uncle for the lost interest, however my Uncle managed to talk my attorney into agreeing to drop all fees and penalties as well as any criminal charges against him as long as he released every cent in this Mutual Fund account he set up. My attorney agreed, without my consent, and without asking to see some type of documentation stating what the balance was in the account. She was faxed the initial opening activities by both Smith Barney and my Uncle. After they made this agreement, we recovered only $43,000.00 out of the $54,000.00. The original account my mother had set up was only making about 4% every 6 months, but these funds were left sitting in the Estate account for over 2 years not earning a dime before they were reinvested into the Mutual Funds by the Administrator. My attorney set up an account for my son at the local bank we both agreed upon. The $41,000.00 that was left was deposited into a 1 year Certificate of Deposit which comes due every May 19th. To my knowledge, no taxes were ever paid or filed on my sons behalf while the Administrator was handeling moms estate. The heirs never even got to see the prepared final Income taxes of my mothers estate because then we would be able to prove my Uncle was skimming rather large amounts of money from the estate and us.
My son suffers from ADHD as well as learning disabilities, and the Public School system is failing my child severely. I asked the Judge to rule that I would be entitled to withdraw a specific amount out of this account at maturity each and every year for the purpose of paying for private schooling for my son. He did, however, one year after setting up this account, the only Private School located in this side of the County was not educating any better than the public schools. So when the deposit matured, I petitioned the court to release $2,500.00 to me for the purchase of a new computer and educational software that would impliment his education with added home studies. My requests were granted at a cost of $300.00 to the attorney for typing up the papers. I am totally disabled from an on the job injury sustained while working in the capacity as a Correctional Officer with the County of Lake. The fee of $300.00 which I was required to pay the Attorney for copying my documents onto her pleading letterhead paper was way out of line. I barely could afford it. Since my son earned $1,400.00+\- that year, I also filed his taxes and was required to pay over $200.00 in tax and preperation fees one month before the deposit reached maturity. I refused taking the court approved amount out of the account prior to maturity as the early withdrawal fees were quite excessive, and I felt that my child had already lost over $10,000.00 while my Uncle was controlling his money.
I've done nothing that would resemble squandering where my chids trust fund is concerned, unlike my Uncle. My question is: Can Bank of America be held responsible for transferring this account into the Estate account when it was NO part of the Estate and the Administrator had no Legal rights to the funds? Did I mention that the Branch closed shortly after the funds were transferred? I've tried getting information from Bank of America over the phone, but because the Branch had closed and moved out of the area, nobody could give me any information. All of the accounts were given new account numbers that matched the Branch in Lakeport. Since incompetence has been demonstrated by the Administrator of the Estate in regards to this trust fund, I feel it is safe to say that the same has more than likely been done with the assets of the Estate. How does one hold the Administrator responsible, and at the same time obtain all of the documents removed from the Estate as well as created while in his control? I know the Real Estate was under valued by him, and what happened to the funds of the Business? All of the merchandise was paid for by my mother. We were told that the Business took a huge loss. How come the completed tax returns were never shown to us to review? There has to be some type of law that would allow me alone, or with my siblings to have the Accounting records reviewed by the courts.
Lastly, is there any way I can have control of my sons trust account changed from being Court Controlled to being controlled by the Legal Guardian/Parent? I am not in a financial position to afford the Attorney fees incurred just to ask reimbursement of the Income Taxes paid each year, let alone the fact that waiting until May when the account matures to withdraw funds for private education is too late in the year. My child needs to have some intervention now or he may never make it out of Junior High School. I could enroll him into Sylvan online, which is an excellent program that focuses on his learning disabilities and teaches using various proven methods allowing the student to learn in spite of the disabilities. This program costs about $500.00 to be assessed and enroll, then it's around $50.00 per hour with an average of 8 hours per week spent by each student.
I only want the best for my son, and I feel as though I have failed him as a parent because I cannot provide him with the specialized education he requires. What good does it do to save these funds held in trust for a minor, that were intended to be used on Higher Education if the minor will never pass the 8th grade as long as he is kept in his current situation? How many young men return to high school at the age of 25? None! If I don't find a way to help him now, all the money in the world won't do him any good later on.
Any advice or guidance you could provide me with would be extremely appreciated. As I stated earlier, I am disabled and trying to provide for my two children, ages 11 and 12, with Social Security Disability Income. Each month gets harder and harder to pull it off! I earn barely enough to pay the monthly bills, anything additional (like shoes) will not fit into the budget no matter what way I try to squeeze it in.
Thank you agian,
Susan Macedo