Greed, Just plain greed

[Kant-B-lev-it]

Greed, Just plain greed / Need ADVICE

undefinedWhat is the name of your state? WV/NC/LA

Long story as short as I can so that it doesn't take up 50 pages.
Grandma died 06/02 in WV after a series of strokes and became "invalid" (03/00). Up until that point she lived in LA/New Orleans. She was brought to WV by my mother/her daughter because a medical facility was too costly, says mom. Mom went so far as to take grandma's body to New Orleans for burial in the back of her car to save money on transporting grandma's body.
On the day of the funeral I came across grandma's will hidden in mom's suitcase, and unknowingly to mom made copies before replacing it. The will states, I hereby create a trust to be called the "grandma's name" trust. The trust subject to the following: A) I appoint "mom's name" Trustee of the Trust. If unwilling or unable I appoint "blah". B) I give and bequeath unto the Trust all of my stock interest in the "said company". C) The sole beneficiaries of principal and interest shall be my grandchildren (A,B,C). D) Trustee shall manage, invest, etc. (D, E, F, G, H) more rules as to when ben. can take controll, (age 25). I) No Trustee named required to furnish bond. J, K) more standard info. Followed by, To my daughter, "name" I bequeath all the rest of the remainder of my property real and personnel, etc. I name "mom's name" Executrix of my estate with full seizin and w/out bond. etc.

I was only able to get the original will 2 days ago. Unfortunatley, in Nov. of 03', Succession/transfer of possesion was completed in LA. I have the succession/transfer papers, (signed, documented with the courts and all) but they state that grandma died intestate and without a will. (Note - mom is the sole heir/only child), no will = everything to her. Grandma's attorney who wrote the will and was her attorney for 25 yrs, filed the succession papers and vowing under oath that intestate and no will was true.

Question is. Can probation of the will still take place even with succession taking place. Also, what state, WV, LA, or where I live, NC. This is not a nominal amount of $$$. Mom was left, if followed by the will more than 1.5 million. The amount of the said stocks left the the grandkids, totals about 50K - 80K in dividends per year. Got an attorney in WV, but this new info and possession of original will has happened within last week. Please point me in a direction if the is one to go!!!

 

[Dandy Don]

(1) How did you get the original will? You have no idea how beneficial that will be to your establishing legal victory for your side!!

If you haven't done so already, you need to tell your West Virginia attorney about the discovery of the will, so he can brainstorm with a Louisiana probate attorney to figure out if a statute of limitations applies here or not so you can try to potentiallly correct/revise the probate or recover your monies.

Probate should normally take place in the state where the death occurred, but alternate probate in another state can also happen. Probate should have occurred in WV, so the real question is "Who made the decision to probate it in LA: your mom, the attorney, or both of them?"

This looks very suspicious/questionable because it looks like attorney and mom made a joint decision and figured out if would be the most financially advantageous to both of them to get everything by cheating you all out of your share of this estate.

(2) Did you get a copy of all of the papers in the succession file that includes information on the financial assets/value in the estate? Also try to find out if any type of administrator's bond was required to be posted for this estate in Louisiana.

If the stocks were mentioned in the succession, then you will know for sure that you were robbed. If they were not mentioned, then you might need to still take action now to get what you are entitled to.

(3) You don't know right now whether the trust actually exists or not, so you or your attorney needs to find this out from mom--get a copy of the trust and accounting information regarding it.

The fact that the attorney who drafted the original will LIED UNDER OATH is very seriously illegal and he and your mother will have to face the consequences for their fraud. If the stock dividend money is still in trust and hasn't been spent, then you obviously would not need to sue to get if they give it back voluntarily, but you may have to sue one or both of them to get the monies you were cheated out of by the inappropriate filing of the will in Louisiana. What a mess! Hopefully your attorney can advise you on how to proceed. I think this is going to have a very happy ending for you!!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[Kant-B-lev-it]

info

1) I got the oringinal will this past week when I confronted mom about inconsistencies. She said the "copy" I had was old and grandma made a new will. When I asked to see it, all she had was the original (which I put in my pocket). Amazing that when people are caught they don't think clearly.
I don't know who's idea it was to petition succession in LA, it looks like they put their heads together for their own gain, even though I can't imagine what the attorney's gain would be.

2) I have copies of all the succession/estate papers claiming what property my mom stated of my grandmother's. The stocks in question were not mentioned as well as many other stocks and assets that I know of as absolute.

3) The trust as far as I know does not exist. Mom says there is no such thing, because she states that grandma signed over the stocks the 90's. However, I have the transfer of stocks from the company to my mother's name dated in Feb. 03. Grandma died in July 02.

???? Will there be an issue about probating the will even though succession has been completed (illegaly)??????

 

[Dandy Don]

There may or may not be an "issue" about the previous succession having been done in Louisiana--your situation is too complex to be given definitive answers until all the facts are reviewed.

If you are having the will probated in West Virginia that is probably the best and simplest option to pursue since no previous probate was apparently done there.

 

[seniorjudge]

You need a very good probate attorney in Louisiana.