mothers will

[chloe9192]

My brother and i live in Texas and my oldest brother liives in Massachusetts. My mother passed away (lived in Massachusetts) in February of this year. My oldest brother was the executor of my mothers estate and after my mom passed away he began handling her estate. He waas very vague about what would be done with my mothers estate. She had no property but had some small life insurance policies and some money that my brother said would be used to pay the bills and then he would distrubute the remaining money to myself and my other 3 siblings. He was very vague when questioned about how much money would be spent on the bills. He waas very vague on how much money she had. He did say however that his daughter bought some things for my mother before she passed away and vaguely insinuated that she should be reimbursed for these things. Last night, I was talkng to my sister-in-law in Texas and she said that my brother who lives here in Texas told my oldest brother that he should pay the bills and then give the money to his kids (oldest brothers) who was executor. I am in disbelief about this. We have heard nothing from my oldest brother about anything having to do with the will. He has not contacted anyone about the fact that there is nothing left to distribute to the rest of us children. She had made a handwritten will that she gave to me but I mailed it to the probate court in Massachusetts and they replied that it was not legal because it was not witnessed by two people. I want to know if I still have any legal recourse. I plan to send my brother a letter asking him what he did wiith any money that was left from my mothers estate. I smell a snake in all of this, because after my mother died they tried to prevent me from coming to Massachusetts for my mothers funeral. The family also sent letters via e-mail that were accusatory in nature accusing me of abusing my brother by asking about my mothers affairs. They accused me of trying to get money out of my brother that was not there. The letters were very judgmental and accusatory in nature. What should I do now?

 

[ALawyer]

This seems to be a typical family mess in which the siblings are fighting, perhaps over little or nothing.

If there was no valid Will the assets in her name would be distributed according to the law of intestate distribution of the state in which she lived, Massachussets and likely should be divided up equally among the kids AFTER paying any funeral expenses and debts. Insurance typically goes to NAMED beneficiaries, not the estate and the Will does not control. Nor does the Will or laws of intestate distribution impact "joint property" or POD accounts.