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Statute of limitations on receiving proceeds from mother's estate

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family_feud

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona
Mom lived and died in AZ, will administered in AZ, I am a resident of NY

Hello everyone,
I hope I'm posting in the right forum.

TLDR: 1. my (estate admin.) brother refuses to communicate with me regarding the proceeds of the sale of our mother's house and the disposition of other assets.
2. There has been a period of silence between us: 4 years
3. Three beneficiaries, brothers one AZ resident, one CA resident, and me NY resident.
4. I'm fear that AZ brother/executor is attempting to outright steal my share of the proceeds due to a long period of non-communication and statute of limitations.

Hello,
I'm hoping someone out there might be able to offer me a kernel of hope with a situation that I really wish I didn't have to be dealing with.

Almost 10 years ago my mom died after about a year of illness after a botched surgery left her with very limited lung capacity. I moved from New York to Arizona to take care of her for that year because she couldn't live by herself anymore. I'm very glad that I had that time with her and I miss her every day.

I have two older brothers, one lives a couple hours away from her then- in the Phoenix area and the eldest lives in San Diego.

For the most part, they left the care of mom to me and I had medical power of attorney signed over to me so that I could make decisions about her care.

Towards the end of her life the middle brother campaigned heavily to be granted legal power of attorney. The eldest brother (who was named in the will as executor) had been pretty tuned out of the whole situation and had really only bothered to visit maybe twice during her illness and didn't want the job. I didn't feel qualified or up to it, and since the middle brother had a finance background it seemed logical to let him handle that aspect of things.

None of us were in a rush to deal with the estate. We held several garage sales. Since it was 2009 the housing market was pretty bad so we figured we'd wait before listing it. We discussed possibly renting it out but the AZ based brother/executor figured he'd end up having to be the landlord and wasn't thrilled with that idea. Things went on this way for a few years. I traveled back and forth between NYC and AZ a few times to take part in the garage sales and I also spent some time cataloging and boxing up a lot of the posessions that were left. Mom and Dad spent their retirement restoring and collecting antiques, re-selling some but a lot was still piled up in Mom's house, so there was a lot to catalog. All of that stuff is now in his house and several storage units.

Around 2014 the eldest brother in San Diego had some business/tax issues and needed some $$. The other brother let me know what was going on and also indicated that we were getting to the end of the house-maintenace budget and it was probably time to start moving on with things. He mentioned that he had considered loaning it him the money but wasn't exactly liquid enough at that point and didn't want to pull from his investments to do it. I didn't have it either and so we agreed to move ahead with liquidating the remainder of the estate.

Here's where things started to head off the rails. During that same conversation he mentioned that he had already contacted a couple of local women that someone in mom's neighborhood had recommended that ran a company that handled estate sales. He said they seemed nice and that he figured that might be a good way to handle getting rid of some of the larger items like furniture some of the other stuff that hadn't moved during the garage sales. I said that it all sounded fine to me and as we ended the call I asked him to keep me up to date with how things were proceeding.

Well he didn't keep me up to date. Probably two or three weeks went by and I handn't heard anything. I decided to email him for an update. Since I was in NY, I wanted some lead time so I could get airline tickets taken care of so that I could come out and be a part of the process. I received an email back from him. One line: "I sold everything for $10".

Ha Ha, very funny.

I know now that I was very stupid and should have asked for details. Instead I assumed that his flip response was short hand for "we really haven't had time to get moving on this and nothing much has happened yet". Boy was I wrong.

Some time later (I think it may have been a week maybe) I got an email: "Hey the train's leaving the station -- the estate sellers are here and they're putting tags on everything and I need to know what of mom's kitchen stuff you don't want sold!"

I was furious. They had basically gone behind my back and made it impossible for me to fly out in time to be a part of the estate sale. I felt very betrayed. I shot back with a very angry email and said I didn't want ANY of her kitchen stuff sold and I also wanted photos of everything that had been tagged for sale and also requested an accounting of everything that did sell. Silence.

I contacted the the neighbor that recommended the estate seller company and got their number. Over the proceeding days/weeks I called them and left many, many messages -- No call was ever returned. They had obviously been instructed to ignore me.

Things devolved from there. It's an unfortunate family trait that when an offense has been committed, the silent treatment and heaps of obstinance usually result. I know now that I should have been the bigger man and calmly confronted them about their actions, but I was and continue to be, rocketing mad about this. The thought of interacting with them makes my blood boil. So I went silent. Another stupid move, of course.

Some time later I received email letting me know that the house had been put on the market and that they figured it only only right that if I had an interest in purchasing it that I should have the opportunity to buy them out. I didn't reply.

Sometime after that I received a certified letter stating that the house had sold and that I was entitled to my share of the proceeds and that "since he had heard me speak of possibly moving, he didn't know where to send it to and that I should contact him so he would know where to send it and the accounting of the estate." I signed the return receipt and left it at that. Again, stupid.

I have lived in the same apartment for going on 25 years. I guess I figure that my signature on that certified letter was as good as contacting him and saying: "I'm here, send it here please".

So four years have passed since that letter, and I'm still extremely angry and I think don't I'll be un-angry any time soon. I know, stupid and immature, but that's just how I am.

So here we are in 2018. I sent him an email recently. I replied to one he sent to me four years ago that roughly coincided with the certified letter. I said: "please contact me regarding this"

His reply:
"you're responding to an email I sent four years ago."

My reply:
"please send me a cheque for my share of the proceeds from the sale of the house and the estate sale -- immediately."
"please send me a full accounting of the sale of the house and an accounting of the sold and un-sold assets -- as soon as possible."

These aren't boiled down -- that was the actual exchange.

So it's been two weeks. Nothing in my mailbox. Nothing in my email inbox.

Throughout the past few months I've tried to do some research about fiduciary responsibility and estates and what estate administrators are required to do. I've also tried, not very successfully, to find out how statutes of limitations would be applied to a case like this.

Here is what I've come across so far:
Fiduciary:
1. The fiduciary has a responsibility to report to the heirs annually on the disposition of the estate.
-- never done, not even when we were on speaking terms.
2. The fiduciary has a right to reasonable compensation for the performance of his/her duties but not to self-deal or in any way enrich themselves at the expense of the beneficiaries.
-- I feel that 1/3 of the estate proceeds doesn't really constitute "reasonable compensation"
3. The fiduciary has the responsibility to ensure that the will is followed to the letter and to do everything in their power to make sure that each heir receives their share of the estate.
-- I guess this is where he's hoping to find some wiggle-room. Stating in the letter that he wasn't sure where I might be living. And then taking my "non-response" as permission to plunder the rest of the estate. I mean, c'mon you're the fiduciary. You don't get to behave like a child no matter that everyone else is.
4. Bringing a case against the executor requires that all the heirs bring the case and the best outcome is that a new executor is appointed.
-- Not much use at this stage. If I were to lawyer-up I would want to sue for breach of fiduciary responsiblility, recover my share of the estate and possibly damages, but I'm afraid I probably have no chance of doing this due to all the time that has passed.

Statute of limitiations:
1. Seems like it is 2 years for many things. Which kind of boggles my mind.
2. There seems to be some gray areas when applying it to probate. I believe I read somewhere that in some cases it can be extended to six and a half years and that the clock doesn't start ticking until the final accounting of the estate has been presented to all heirs. I'm hoping that this is the case as I have never been presented with an accounting of ANYTHING EVER.

So. Am I screwed?

I'm close to picking up a phone and calling an estate lawyer in AZ. I have a sinking feeling I'll get laughed off the line, so I figured I'd post here and let you all have a shot first.


If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time.

Rob
 


HRZ

Senior Member
Some general thoughts from a layman

1.The executors duties are not a committee decision, its nice, but not his duty to figure out who may want what and who wants to attend what garage sale ..but he is not supposed to self deal the good stuff if thats what happened. And the estate sellers work for estate/executor --not you ..makes sense to not include a committee of meddlers.

2. Sitting on RE waiting for markets to improve is a tough call but again not a committe vote

3. Loans funds to one beneficiary or early distribution to one begins to smell, especially if estate is not well protected.

4. I don t know what is in AZ law --around me the executors commission has some published guidelines and anything more than that needs court blessing for extra ordinary work (and its taxable income ..better match tax returns )

5. The reporting / accounting requirements are probably in AZ law--did you check. You are entitled to such accounting as law provides...often it is a summary/unoffical accounting unless you specifically and timely request a formal accounting .

6. There may be statutory reporting requirements --and around me they are in the a file for each estate in the county recorder of wills office --they are public to inspect..often very vague but big clues as to status .bet there is an AZ parallel. .. (Send somebody in to copy the whole darn thing for you--it may contain major clues or answers --or a service to do so ..probably a flat fee to go plus $X per page )

7. Its not rare for an executor to send out funds and a acceptance/release letter which cleverly has you sign off as to any other claims for anything and release the executor . and people rush to sign and get money without reading what they signed away--but apparently that did not take place either.

8 . You may have handed a dirtball executor a self serving excuse about not knowing where to send the final accounting and check ...cure that tomorrow ? An email probably does not count as proper notice of anything to a beneficiary but you knew something took place ...

9. Exactly which brother was appointed by the court letters of administration as the executor --that's the one you need to contact ?? Your post suggests one was offical and the other did the actual work --not cool.

10 No clue what the AZ SOL is for such matters but did you look it up?

11, Just as an intelligent guess, what is total size of pot in estate ?
 

family_feud

Junior Member
Some general thoughts from a layman

1.The executors duties are not a committee decision, its nice, but not his duty to figure out who may want what and who wants to attend what garage sale ..but he is not supposed to self deal the good stuff if thats what happened. And the estate sellers work for estate/executor --not you ..makes sense to not include a committee of meddlers.

2. Sitting on RE waiting for markets to improve is a tough call but again not a committe vote

3. Loans funds to one beneficiary or early distribution to one begins to smell, especially if estate is not well protected.

4. I don t know what is in AZ law --around me the executors commission has some published guidelines and anything more than that needs court blessing for extra ordinary work (and its taxable income ..better match tax returns )

5. The reporting / accounting requirements are probably in AZ law--did you check. You are entitled to such accounting as law provides...often it is a summary/unoffical accounting unless you specifically and timely request a formal accounting .

6. There may be statutory reporting requirements --and around me they are in the a file for each estate in the county recorder of wills office --they are public to inspect..often very vague but big clues as to status .bet there is an AZ parallel. .. (Send somebody in to copy the whole darn thing for you--it may contain major clues or answers --or a service to do so ..probably a flat fee to go plus $X per page )

7. Its not rare for an executor to send out funds and a acceptance/release letter which cleverly has you sign off as to any other claims for anything and release the executor . and people rush to sign and get money without reading what they signed away--but apparently that did not take place either.

8 . You may have handed a dirtball executor a self serving excuse about not knowing where to send the final accounting and check ...cure that tomorrow ? An email probably does not count as proper notice of anything to a beneficiary but you knew something took place ...

9. Exactly which brother was appointed by the court letters of administration as the executor --that's the one you need to contact ?? Your post suggests one was offical and the other did the actual work --not cool.

10 No clue what the AZ SOL is for such matters but did you look it up?

11, Just as an intelligent guess, what is total size of pot in estate ?

Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'll try to answer these points as completely as possible:

1. A lot of what I've gone on about I realize is not a question of law. I guess I should add that up to the point that they began "icing" me out during the run-up to the estate sale, things between us were reasonably amicable. I know that they didn't have any legal obligation to accomodate me on this, but I expected to not be shut out. I feel that to refuse to speak to a beneficiary when they're requesting an accounting of what's going on to be a breach of fiduciary duty. It was CERTAINLY a breach of the ethics that has always governed our family.

2. We all agreed that it was okay to let the house sit vacant for a while. There were no unilateral decisions with regard to this.

3. I don't guess I regard this as an early distribution and again, I agreed with pretty much everything up to this point. We needed to get going with liquidating things. The executor had considered loaning my other brother money from his own, non-inheritance-related funds but decided against it. So the only way the eldest brother was going to get the money he needed was if we proceeded to liquidate the assets and get the house on the market. I was on board with all of this. It was when they proceeded in a deceitful manner, getting things ready behind my back, making it so that I wouldn't be able to get on a plane and attend the (preparation of the) estate sale, that things started to get ugly. Again probably not a legal transgression, but I expected better treatment.

4. I do not have any insight into executors commission reporting requirements in AZ either. I also don't have any idea what my brother decided to allot himself. I expect that, should I hire a lawyer, they'll be able to elaborate on some of this.

5. I don't know the first thing about researching reporting/accounting or law. I find it all very confusing. Again I would expect that a lawyer might be able to provide some clarification. My main concern throughout all of this is whether I've waited too long to take action.

6. This sounds like an avenue I might be able to explore. I'll contact the county recorder tomorrow. I'm assuming that it would be for the county in which my mom resided?

7. No clever acceptance/release letter, no accounting, no nothing ever received on this end, much less any funds of any kind.

8. Not sure of the wording on this one: "cure that tomorrow?". I have emailed him with my address (of 25yrs) and a request for accounting and proceeds. No response. I will be sending a certified letter with same soon. I've actually been rather hesitant about proceeding with this on my own fearing that by doing something I feel is perfectly reasonable, might end up biting me on the ass legalistically down the road -- I see it all the time in cop/law shows (which is about my extent of knowledge in these kinds of things). It's always emphasized: DON'T do anything without consulting a lawyer!!!

9. The eldest brother was named executor in the will. We all signed legal paperwork assigning this duty to the middle brother. This was all on the up and up. I had initial misgivings about him handling things seeing that he campaigned for it so heavily. I never dreamed he would pull this kind of crap though.

10. Again, I attempted some research on SOL and seem to come up with 2 years. But I also read that there are some gray areas here. There was some mention here and there that SOL doesn't start until the estate is closed and that doesn't happen until all beneficiaries are provided with an accounting. I have a hard time getting my head around a situation where an executor gets to keep anything not distributed. I would think it would need to be filed as unclaimed property or, at least distributed among the remaining heirs -- I don't know if the older brother has shared in the spoils. I'm considering contacting him, but, again, I don't know what I should and should not be doing in order to maximally preserve my rights in this matter. I've made so many mis-steps already, I'd like to avoid doing further damage to my case (if I even have one anymore).

11. between 100K - 300K. I would also consider suing for damages -- emotional stress etc.


Thanks again for responding. You've given me some things to explore. I see what I can dig up and update this thread with what I find.

Rob
 
Last edited:

HRZ

Senior Member
IF a good attorney costs $300 hr to run scavenger hunts you might be wise to do ,more homework on your own first .

I just gotta bet az probate law spells out executors duty to account .

It's bad form to pay one ahead of others but not necessarily illegal

Executor has no legal duty to include you in decision process or auctions or anything else...but accurate pay out once the bills and taxes are paid , sometimes court must approve distributions.

I have no clu how sol works here.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
If you know the city where the death occurred, find out the name of the COUNTY for that city and look for the website of that county's Superior Court in Arizona. It will have a case search feature where you enter the name of the decedent to see if anyone has filed to open up a probate. If a probate has been filed, you can look online to see what actions/activity occurred with the estate and you can also contact the court clerk to order a copy of every page in the file for a small fee (perhaps 50 cents or a dollar per page).

After you have looked at the pages, consult with an Arizona probate attorney to find out if there is anything you can do to recover anything from this estate. Hopefully, probate has not finished yet. The executor was required to send you notice that the estate had been opened and a copy of the will.
 

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