Withholding Information Upon Death of Mother

[legacy]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio

Problem: Before my mother died, she was in a nursing home and dealing with Medicaid. My mother has since passed. My brother is the executive of my mom's will, and my sister-in-law was the power of attorney. He purposely withheld $100,000.00 worth of antiques from my mom's estate so that Medicaid did not consume it. The attorney my brother is using to represent the estate is fully aware of the antiques, which they call "intangibles" and advised my brother not to do anything with them for 3 years (meaning sell them or keep them) so that there is no paper trail of them that Medicaid can see. My brother told me that when this was all said and done, his intent for keeping the antiques was to split them between the 4 siblings when this is all over.

My concern: The antiques should have been included in the estate, regardless of their worth. What do I do and what are my options?? I believe that he is going to use the antiques as he so desires. And is the attorney breaking the law by withholding property that should have been entitled to Medicaid ??

Help !!

 

[Ohiogal]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Ohio

Problem: Before my mother died, she was in a nursing home and dealing with Medicaid. My mother has since passed. My brother is the executive of my mom's will, and my sister-in-law was the power of attorney. He purposely withheld $100,000.00 worth of antiques from my mom's estate so that Medicaid did not consume it. The attorney my brother is using to represent the estate is fully aware of the antiques, which they call "intangibles" and advised my brother not to do anything with them for 3 years (meaning sell them or keep them) so that there is no paper trail of them that Medicaid can see. My brother told me that when this was all said and done, his intent for keeping the antiques was to split them between the 4 siblings when this is all over.

My concern: The antiques should have been included in the estate, regardless of their worth. What do I do and what are my options?? I believe that he is going to use the antiques as he so desires. And is the attorney breaking the law by withholding property that should have been entitled to Medicaid ??

Help !!

You could report the attorney to the bar for encouraging your brother to commit a crime and helping him commit fraud. Those antiques were your mothers and if they were consumed by Medicaid so be it. How dare your brother keep them and expect taxpayers to support your mom so he could illegally inherit. You could also report it to medicaid that these exist and do the honest thing.