Help with Estate Settlement question please.

[David.]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky,
Hello all, 1st time here at this forum, please forgive if I post incorrect format or am at the wrong location within the forum.
Thank any and all for replies.

My sister and I lost our last parent and as a result filed a wrong death lawsuit. We hired an atty to act for us. The lawsuit was won and they settled out of court. Full amount of the settlement has been sent and
received at the attys office. We have 3 parties involved in the estate. Myself, sister, and 1 other sibling with 100% disability. We set up a trust for the other sibling because he is also receives SSI. All is agreed upon,
all parties are receiving and equal share of the "cash only" left estate. No taxes, outstanding creditors, liens etc are an issue. The lawyer emailed us some forms stating that we have received full payment from the settlement
and have them notarized and sent back to him. We denied this request with the explanation that we did not feel comfortable signing receipt of something that we have not yet. We "all" offered to gladly meet in his office at the same time and sign any and all paperwork required at the time of dividing of the settlement. We all get an equal share in this. The lawyer denied this request and said if we did not sign as he requests he has no choice but to make this go a formal settlement instead of an informal settlement. I requested for some insight and understanding of his actions. He refused any explanation and said he would contact us later. We received by email some forms to sign so he can make this a formal settlement. ( don't fully understand the forms ). My question(s) are: Why and can he refuse us to simply all come and sign paperwork at his office? Is he allowed to change things( formal to informal) on his own without our consent? what is the difference between formal and informal and why does he see it as needed when all parties are in agreement and there are no loose items left to deal with. Am I allowed to get another lawyer and pay his fee for serviced already rendered and have him transfer the settlement amount to the other atty? It feels like he is trying to stall us for reasons I do not understand. He has had Full payment from the lawsuit for over 2 months now and yet he denies us the right to come to his office and all just settle final matters, paperwork and take a check to the bank. Should I contact the Bar Association and File a complaint? I am just not sure what to do at this point. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky,
Hello all, 1st time here at this forum, please forgive if I post incorrect format or am at the wrong location within the forum.
Thank any and all for replies.

My sister and I lost our last parent and as a result filed a wrong death lawsuit. We hired an atty to act for us. The lawsuit was won and they settled out of court. Full amount of the settlement has been sent and
received at the attys office. We have 3 parties involved in the estate. Myself, sister, and 1 other sibling with 100% disability. We set up a trust for the other sibling because he is also receives SSI. All is agreed upon,
all parties are receiving and equal share of the "cash only" left estate. No taxes, outstanding creditors, liens etc are an issue. The lawyer emailed us some forms stating that we have received full payment from the settlement
and have them notarized and sent back to him. We denied this request with the explanation that we did not feel comfortable signing receipt of something that we have not yet. We "all" offered to gladly meet in his office at the same time and sign any and all paperwork required at the time of dividing of the settlement. We all get an equal share in this. The lawyer denied this request and said if we did not sign as he requests he has no choice but to make this go a formal settlement instead of an informal settlement. I requested for some insight and understanding of his actions. He refused any explanation and said he would contact us later. We received by email some forms to sign so he can make this a formal settlement. ( don't fully understand the forms ). My question(s) are: Why and can he refuse us to simply all come and sign paperwork at his office? Is he allowed to change things( formal to informal) on his own without our consent? what is the difference between formal and informal and why does he see it as needed when all parties are in agreement and there are no loose items left to deal with. Am I allowed to get another lawyer and pay his fee for serviced already rendered and have him transfer the settlement amount to the other atty? It feels like he is trying to stall us for reasons I do not understand. He has had Full payment from the lawsuit for over 2 months now and yet he denies us the right to come to his office and all just settle final matters, paperwork and take a check to the bank. Should I contact the Bar Association and File a complaint? I am just not sure what to do at this point. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I absolutely would contact the bar association and at least discuss the situation with someone. Something is off there.

 

[anteater]

You keep mentioning "estate." Is there a probate proceeding? If so, who is the executor? Who hired the attorney?

 

[David.]

The Probate and everything has been resolved. The probate atty wont release the funds to the heirs as mentioned before. Everything has been resolved but the probate atty wants us to sign forms saying we have received
everything when we have not received anything as mentioned above, sorry if I was not making all information known from my above statement.
My sister and I both hired the atty.

 

[anteater]

You did not answer: who is executor of the probate estate? Would I be correct in assuming that it is this attorney?

It may not be intuitive, but asking beneficiaries to sign releases before funds are released is a common practice.

But why the attorney would not agree to an in-person signing and exchange, I don't know.

I'm not familiar with Kentucky specifically, but, generally, an informal settlement means that the beneficiaries sign that they are satisfied with administration of the estate and agree with the distributions. Those documents are filed with the court and probate is concluded. Generally, formal settlement means that a detail accounting and proposed distribution is prepared and presented to the court. The court audits the accounting, and, if there are no problems and no objections, orders that the distribution be made. A formal settlement usually takes longer and results in higher costs.

 

[David.]

My sister is the executer of the estate. We both hired the atty to file the paperwork for us.
I only had issue with the paperwork because it stated we have "already" received the settlement.
I would not have issue if it said as you stated that we are in agreement with such settlement results.
Of the 3 persons receiving a portion of the estate, ALL are getting an equal share and no one has
any issues or problems with anything. After the lawsuit was finalized out of court and the settlement
was made and payment received "to the lawyer" everything was finished per 'se. All that was required
and left to finish was the probate lawyers paperwork to be filed with the courts. We all agreed to sign any
and all paperwork at his office but he declined. We all even agreed to sign the original paperwork he wanted
us to sign. " the already received settlement one" but at his office so as we received said settlement we
would sign off for it. He would not permit that. You stated that "formal" usually cost more. I have a feeling
he may want it to go this way to increase his fees. This is just speculation on my part because I see no reason
for any type of delay.
As executor, can my sister force the atty to file informal instead of formal? A longer path and explanation
of everything spent and where it went is absolutely not required or expected by any party receiving anything
from the estate and almost seems unnecessary.
I am not sure what rights my sister and I have in this matter. The atty has done nothing but seem to stall
things over the last 2 months and nothing we do or ask him helps.

 

[anteater]

I guess that I did not explicitly say it... But I meant to include signing a receipt for a distribution before receiving the distribution as a common practice. Once beneficiaries get their hands on a distribution, they have a tendency to just blow off signing and returning the receipt and release.

It sounds like your sister has to have a "frank and open" discussion with the attorney, emphasizing who is the executor and who is the hired help.