Monetary Request Left in Will

[awl2005]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

We have the following situation. Don't know what are legal position could be, if any. Would appreciate any comments or help.

We are a small non-profit animal shelter in Indiana. An individual contacted our shelter director and wanted to know the correct information for our organization to be listed in the will.

This individual has since passed away and we are listed to receive $100,000.00 in her will. Her estate is estimated to be over 1 million. However upon further investigation it appears that all of this was in investments accounts that list her nephew as the beneficiary of them and surrendered to him upon her death. Her lawyer is telling us that there is not any other assets to fulfill this $100,000 request to us.

We need to know if we have any legal ground to stand on or if we should push this issue further. It is a LARGE donation for us and could be put to good use. We have been further told that the nephew will not honor his aunt's request in the will.

Thanks.

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

We have the following situation. Don't know what are legal position could be, if any. Would appreciate any comments or help.

We are a small non-profit animal shelter in Indiana. An individual contacted our shelter director and wanted to know the correct information for our organization to be listed in the will.

This individual has since passed away and we are listed to receive $100,000.00 in her will. Her estate is estimated to be over 1 million. However upon further investigation it appears that all of this was in investments accounts that list her nephew as the beneficiary of them and surrendered to him upon her death. Her lawyer is telling us that there is not any other assets to fulfill this $100,000 request to us.

We need to know if we have any legal ground to stand on or if we should push this issue further. It is a LARGE donation for us and could be put to good use. We have been further told that the nephew will not honor his aunt's request in the will.

Thanks.

Q: We need to know if we have any legal ground to stand on or if we should push this issue further. It is a LARGE donation for us and could be put to good use. We have been further told that the nephew will not honor his aunt's request in the will.

A: You have no case because: "Her estate is estimated to be over 1 million. However upon further investigation it appears that all of this was in investments accounts that list her nephew as the beneficiary of them and surrendered to him upon her death. Her lawyer is telling us that there is not any other assets to fulfill this $100,000 request to us...."

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

We have the following situation. Don't know what are legal position could be, if any. Would appreciate any comments or help.

We are a small non-profit animal shelter in Indiana. An individual contacted our shelter director and wanted to know the correct information for our organization to be listed in the will.

This individual has since passed away and we are listed to receive $100,000.00 in her will. Her estate is estimated to be over 1 million. However upon further investigation it appears that all of this was in investments accounts that list her nephew as the beneficiary of them and surrendered to him upon her death. Her lawyer is telling us that there is not any other assets to fulfill this $100,000 request to us.

We need to know if we have any legal ground to stand on or if we should push this issue further. It is a LARGE donation for us and could be put to good use. We have been further told that the nephew will not honor his aunt's request in the will.

Thanks.

SJ is exactly correct. If the investment accounts were payable directly to the nephew, then they passed outside of probate, and the will is not controlling on those. Only assets that pass through probate are controlled by the will -- so if there are not enough assets to pay the gifts listed in the will, those gifts lapse. Unfortunately, the deceased probably didn't know this, or didn't consider this, when she made her gift (or maybe she did, who knows), but there really isn't anything you can do about it now.

Maybe you'll get lucky with another donor one of these days.

 

[Dandy Don]

An Indiana probate attorney is not likely to be reading this message board, so you may also want to post to www.lawguru.com, another free advice message board that is also answered by professional attorneys.

So sorry that this lady didn't do better estate planning. Looks like this is not going to have a favorable outcome for your organization and is not really worth pursuing (so don't be suckered by an attorney offering to contest the will for you--since you have a losing case you will be wasting money on attorney fees). However, on the off chance that some other valuable assets of hers may show up at some point in the probate process (that perhaps the attorney might not have been completely honest with you about), someone from your staff whould at least visit the county courthouse probate court and look at the probate file to see if there is a declaration of official assets (assuming that there are any assets to be probated at all), and also attend one or more of the probate court hearings, just to keep informed about the status of probate in case some other assets might turn up.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])