surviving child's college fund

[Laura99]

California and Ohio
My former husband of 17 years died in November. He left a will which named his current wife as sole beneficiary except for monies from the estate of his deceased mother in OH. These funds, approximately $30,000 from the sale of a house, were left to our youngest son to pay for his college tuition. My former husbands brother was named in the will as the administrator of the college fund.

The current wife has not filed probate and the funds are frozen in OH. My son has been accepted by the local state college for Fall, but it looks as though his college fund will not be available to him.
My son is nolonger a minor.

Please advise. Thank you.

 

[advisor10]

2-14-2002

DEAR LAURA:

(1) Does the administrator have access to the original will? If he does, then he can go ahead and file it at the probate court. Normally, it is a requirement that the will be filed within 30 days after the person's death.

(2) What does the surviving widow give as her reason for not wanting to file the will? It is understandable if she has been grieving and has been busy also handling other affairs regarding the estate, but there is almost no good reason for delaying to file. If necessary, you should consider hiring your own probate attorney (in the same city/and state where the death occurred--I'm assuming that was California) to file a motion with the probate court to FORCE her (or whoever has it) to produce the will for probate.

But you should at least make an honest attempt to resolve this matter by communicating with the widow first, by letter or by phone. Is she perhaps worried about her financial future (what is the value of the estate minus the $30,000?) or is the estate large enough to where that should not be a major concern.

(3) What is the reason that the funds are "frozen"? What form is that money in and where is it being held?

Hopefully there are enough assets in the estate so that there will be more than $30,000 left after taxes, debts, and funeral expenses, etc. have been paid.

Your son, as a valid heir, certainly has every right to ask for what is rightfully his, and I sincerely hope this matter will be resolved in time for him to be able to pay his college expenses this fall.

SINCERELY,

advisor

 

[Laura99]

1. Yes, he does have access to the original will.

2. No reason is being given.

3. The estate in CA is worth in excess of $2M.

4. The other two sons are not beneficiaries of their father's estate -- he believed in a person's need for self-sufficiency. After initially feeling confused and hurt, they've now come to terms with it, and have moved on.

5. The widow isn't communicating.

Thank you very much.

-- lms
PS ~ I'm not attempting to enlist further dialogue with this response. I just thought that you might be interested to see additional situations that illustrate the complex tapestry of human relationships.

 

[advisor10]

2-14-2002

DEAR LAURA99:

Thank you so much for providing more information that does help to present a more complete picture for this estate.

If the administrator is willing to go ahead and file the will with the probate court, that will put things in motion and, barring any complications, that estate should be closed within 3-6 months, with any heirs receiving their checks around the time of the closing of the estate.

Will your son qualify for any other financial aid that would help pay his tuition (assuming that he doesn't get the $30,000 or if perhaps he is choosing not to disclose that on his financial aid applications to see if some other sources of funding would come through? If there is no other way he could attend without this money being available, then perhaps he should consider informing the college (at the proper time) that he is expecting to receive this inheritance, so they would allow him to go ahead and enroll anyway.

I get the idea that the surviving widow may be understandably upset that the other sons were not left with a bequest. That was somewhat strange thinking on the part of their father, because it is natural and expected (and biblical) that a father would leave at least something to help provide for their sons to help make their lives a little bit easier, especially when you can afford to do it.

You would be doing these sons a favor by informing them to have their own probate attorney (from someone who is not presently involved in the estate affairs) to examine the will to determine if they could file a claim anyway. California probate law states that children must be MENTIONED in the will. If the will specifically mentions their names and disinherits them, then that is what must happen. However, if the sons' specific names are NOT mentioned anywhere in the will, then that is a loophole that could allow the sons to claim that the father omitted them by mistake (or some other legally viable reasons) and it would make them eligible to get something from the estate.

Send me an e-mail message to the e-mail address shown below, and I can pass on a confidential tip to you about your situation.

You would also be smart to send the administrator a certified letter that informs the administrator that it is vitally important that your son receive his $30,000 by a specific deadline for a specific reason (to pay college tuition) and ask the administrator to ask the court for an expedited payment to meet that deadline or to get some type of estimate as to when he expects that the estate will actually be closing and when will it be ready to write a check to the legal heirs.

Good luck to you in getting this matter resolved in timely fashion!

SINCERELY,

advisor (e-mail: [email protected])