Siblings rights to mother's assets.

[spirus]

What is the name of your state? Indiana
Hi, I don't know if you can help me with this or not, hopefully you can. My mother died in 1995 in her brother's residence while under going chemo therapy treatments at a hospital 200 miles(same state) from her home town. We were told at the time by her brother, who was handling her affairs that my mother had no will. He later changed his story and said there was a will, but she didn't leave her children anything. At the time, my sisters and myself decided not to press the issue. It has recently come to light that my mother had sizeable assets resulting from the proceeds of a life insurance policy carried my father in which she was the sole benificiary. The declining health of my sister who is no longer able to work due to severe health problems is the motivating factor behind our decision to investigate this further; our motivation isn't greed. In case you were wondering the will was never probated;we checked.

I would like to know if there is a will and we were left something, have we
lost our rights to the property because of the amount of time that has passed?

If there was no will, have we lost the right to part of her assets because of the time factor? Thank you for your help.

 

[Dandy Don]

Did she have any other assets besides this insurance money?

When was it paid to her--before she died?

Did this brother have power of attorney?

If he was named as beneficiary of the bank account, then that money passes to him outside of probate and probate was not needed.

Brother probably did get power of attorney and spent this money for her health care/living needs, which was authorized. Problem is he may have kept some of it for himself, and that is illegal. Check with an attorney to see if your state has laws regarding abuse of power of attorney. If he can't furnish an official accounting of how he spent the money, then he is in trouble.

Problem is you don't have proof of what happened to the money after she died. If there was money in the account AFTER she died, then he is not entitled to that--only the executor of the estate can claim that since power of attorney expired with the death. Check at the bank to see if they can tell you the date they closed out her account and whether there was an account beneficiary or co-owner listed, but sometimes they will only issue that information to executor.

Consider hiring an attorney to get probate opened up and then asking judge to force brother to produce the will for probate court.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[spirus]

thanks for your reply.
she did have some other assets- car, personal property

The insurance proceeds were paid to her two years before she died.

I don't know if he had power of attorney-he has lied to us so much,
it is impossible to believe anything he says.

I don't know if he was named benificary of her bank account.

I do know that the medical expenses did not it away all her money. She was fully covered by insurance.

I just feel her brother must have done something he wasn't supposed to, otherwise he would be more forth coming. We asked numerous times for him to produce a will or documents and he hasn't. If you get the chance please respond to the two following questions. Thanks.

I would like to know if there is a will and we were left something, have we
lost our rights to the property because of the amount of time that has passed?

If there was no will, have we lost the right to part of her assets because of the time factor? Thank you for your help.

 

[lwpat]

I would like to know if there is a will and we were left something, have we

Since no will was ever probated only the brother appears to know if one existed. Was the estate probated?

If so take all of your information and the probate file to an attorney for a consultation. Someone would have to look at the paperwork in order to make any type of determination.

If the estate was not probated then have the attorney start probate. Only the executor has the power to request documents unless you actually file suit and start discovery. This can be expensive. If you are named as executor go down to the IRS office and order her tax returns. If she was receiving interest from a bank account it should show. You may not be able to obtain some records since they are so old.