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Regarding my sister's refusal to produce my mother's will

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xoomxoom

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Colorado

My mother passed away almost 10 months ago and my sister, who is the executor of the will, has stalled on producing the will. The will was never filed in our local court and my sister declares my mother modified the will just before dying, to leave everything to my sister (who was caring for her during the last few months of her life).

While this may be true, I believe I have a right to view the will and demand her to produce it. And though I have no way to prove she's modified it since the death of our mother, I wish to at least view the contents.

My sister is an accountant, has power of attorney, and is refusing to produce the document.
What options do I have, and by what power can I cause her to be required to produce the will?

Thank you.
 


BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
Go to the county courthouse (where mom died) and file probate INTESTATE (without a will). Your sister will either be forced to produce the will or not.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
File probate intestate - I bet the will turns up then!


Edit: BB beat me to the punch ;)
 

amjmrod

Junior Member
I am going through the same exact thing. Please let me know how things turn out for you. We just filed a petition with the courts. My Uncle used POA to take all of her assets for himself.
 

xoomxoom

Junior Member
My sister declares the will is at the house (which belonged to my mother, and now is lived in by my sister) but she is just "so disorganized" she can't locate it. We're approaching a year...

We're headed to the courthouse tomorrow morning.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
seems like you are headed the right direction but something struck me a bit odd.

In your first post, you state sis is the "executor of the will"

First, she would be executrix of the estate, if she is anything at all.

next, she cannot be executrix unless the probate court appoints her as such. Even if a will (which apparently hasn;t shown up in probate court yet) recommends her as executrix, the court actually must declare her to be the executrix. So until probate is opened, there is no executor.

a power of attorney ends when the person dies. Sis has no legal authority to do anything with your mothers estate until a court gives her (or somebody else) authority to act on behalf of the estate.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Do you know whether your mother had the assistance of an attorney when she drafted her will? You will need to look at the will to determine if you want to contest it or not. Did your mother suffer from any disease or take any medication that would have affected her judgement?

When you eventually consult an attorney to get probate opened up if she doesn't produce the will your attorney can get probate opened up and ask judge to order whoever has it to produce it. And also need to be looking to find out if your state has laws against abuse of POA, which is the main reason sis doesn't want to go to probate, because an investigation of the assets will reveal that she took most of them for herself before the death occurred. She may need to be asked to produce some type of accounting for the monies she got control of to prove she spent them on her mother's care.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected]
 

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