Is successorship rquired in Kentucky

[Navychiefforever]

Backstory: My mom was receiving money for an asbestos settlement following my father’s death in 2014. He didn’t have a will at the time of death; however, my mom did complete a simple probate to ensure everything transferred correctly. When she passed in 2020, I became the administrator of her estate, settled what I thought was everything and closed the estate in 2021.

Fast-forward to 2023, and I learned via a 1099 (in my name) that my father still has $5000 remaining in an escrow account with the asbestos law firm. I hired an attorney (in Kentucky) to reopen her estate and after 6 months of clarifying what was needed, we reopened her estate.

The problem is, the NYC law firm is now saying that I also need a successorship for my fathers’ estate. The KY attorney states it’s not required, and I’m at a standstill. It is coming to the point that the $5000 is being eaten up with the new lawyer and I get the impression that with Kentucky being a commonwealth this successorship isn’t required. Can anyone please clarify.


What is the name of your state? Kentucky

 

[LdiJ]

Backstory: My mom was receiving money for an asbestos settlement following my father’s death in 2014. He didn’t have a will at the time of death; however, my mom did complete a simple probate to ensure everything transferred correctly. When she passed in 2020, I became the administrator of her estate, settled what I thought was everything and closed the estate in 2021.

Fast-forward to 2023, and I learned via a 1099 (in my name) that my father still has $5000 remaining in an escrow account with the asbestos law firm. I hired an attorney (in Kentucky) to reopen her estate and after 6 months of clarifying what was needed, we reopened her estate.

The problem is, the NYC law firm is now saying that I also need a successorship for my fathers’ estate. The KY attorney states it’s not required, and I’m at a standstill. It is coming to the point that the $5000 is being eaten up with the new lawyer and I get the impression that with Kentucky being a commonwealth this successorship isn’t required. Can anyone please clarify.


What is the name of your state? Kentucky

Your problem is going to be convincing the NYC law firm that a successorship is not needed. I would assume that your KY attorney is correct that KY does not require that, but apparently NY does and that is why the NYC law firm is insisting upon it. If it is going to eat up the entire 5k to attempt to collect the 5k you might consider just abandoning the 5k.

 

[Navychiefforever]

Appreciate your guidance and advice. My KY lawyer has done a great job but as he said "I've done my job" so now the hard part of convincing the NYC firm to accept this.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I get the impression that with Kentucky being a commonwealth this successorship isn’t required

While it calls itself a commonwealth, it is a state like all the rest. The difference between NY and KY law here isn't due to Kentucky being a commonwealth but simply a difference in the state statutes. While there are a number of similarities between the laws of most states (Louisiana being the exception) on matters of wills, estates, and probate each state has it's own system that varies somewhat from the others, including on the succession issue the NY law firm raised.

For a historical perspective, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts all call themselves a "commonwealth", which initially was a way of expressing anti-royal sentiment. England itself became a commonwealth in 1649, and that lasted 11 years. During the period the English monarchy and the House of Lords were abolish and the nation became known as the Commonwealth of England, a term meant to indicate that the people (the commoners) were the source of government power. This occured after the English civil war in which anti-royalist forces won stunning victories against the Crown. In 1653 Oliver Cromwell, who had been a key figure in the rebellion was named Lord Protector of England, Wales and Scotland. Cromwell's brutal subjugation of Ireland contributed to the very strong anti-English sentiment in Ireland at the time (and which remains to some extent today). The English Commonwealth was militarily strong, even starting the strengthening of the Navy that started the Royal Navy later to become the dominant naval power in the world until America took that crown after the second world war. The problem was that it was politically weak, with royalist forces still fighting against them and a lot of turmoil in the Commonwealth government. After Cromwells death and short lived term of his son as Protector, the ineffective commonwealth government was abolished and the monarchy returned.

During that English commonwealth period Virgina renamed itself a commonwealth too. After the monarchy was reestablished in 1660, it reverted to being a colony again. It renamed itself a commonwealth again during the revolutionary war, along with Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. When Kentucky was organized it too decided to call itself a commonwealth, which is not surprising since the state is just west of Virginia (and Virginia still included what is now West Virginia) and the initial settlers of Kentucky came from Virginia. But once the federal republic was established in 1789, legally all four of them became states of the United States, just like all the others. However, they each still liked being called a commonwealth — it was part of their identity — and so stuck with that even though there was no legal significance attached to it.