What can I do?

[Joanne McAfee]

What is the name of your state? Florida

My mother passed away on 3/26/06 and my step-father has appointed himself executer of her estate because there was no will. He claims he is entitled to only$2300.00 and that the rest of her estate has to be liquidated and given to creditors. I went through her papers with him (but trusted him to do the right thing) and I know that she had 2 time shares, a car,a life insurance policy with me named as the beneficiary, and money in the bank. He will not even send me her social security number and the name of the insurance company so that I can claim the money. I worked in credit card banking for 10 years and I know that if he sends them a death cert they will write off the debt. What can I do about this?

 

[Dandy Don]

Time to hire your own attorney to at least file a motion to get the insurance policy information in one of the probate court proceedings if necessary. You can get her SSN by getting a copy of the death certificate.

Did this man ever get power of attorney signed by your mother?

 

[Dick_Cheney]

bank account

I am not a lawyer
It is not unusual for people to assign a beneficiary of a bank account if they die. Chances are your the beneficiary of that too. Any funds missing after the person passed away would be a felony. I live in California and the credit card companies go after the estate if a person dies.

 

[Joanne McAfee]

reply

I assume he did not have a power of attorney for two reasons: (1) she had been talkig to me about leaving him for the past year and (2) he told me he had to take tons of paperwork to the registrar of wills (is that correct?) to appoint himself the executor. Supposedly this is who informed him that the rest of the estate would go to the creditors. The law in MD may be that the creditors have rights to the estate before heirs but as for the insurance policy...I have emailed a probate lawyer who I met briefly because our daughters were in the same class last year.
Thank you for letting me know that the SSN is on the death cert. I should be getting a copy of that soon. They just finished the toxocology part of the autopsy so I am waiting for them to transcribe the findings to the records. How can I find out when the probate proceedings will be?