Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia
My father past away a few years ago. My half sister never notified my or my siblings of his passing. She just went ahead and handled his funeral and estate without our knowledge. I am the oldest of my fathers 7 children and I dont think she had a right to do this. Also he did not have a will that I know of. How can I handle this?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You post no relevant details. Like where did your father live? When did he die? He may have had a will. If the will named her, then regardless of what you think, your sister could serve as executor if she was named in the will. The law does not provide that only the eldest child can handle these duties.
If there was no will, your sister still could have served as personal representative. However, if this was in Georgia, she would have had to apply for probate and send papers to you. So nothing could have been done without your knowledge.
As you post no details, I would first contact the court in the county/state where your father lived at the time of his death and see if an estate was probated for your father. If not, then there is no estate and your sister is not executor of anything. Whether you want to probate an estate or not in such case would depend on what assets were owned by your father and how they were titled. There only needs to be a probate if there are probate assets. If there is an estate on file, then you need to make a copy of the file and pay a probate attorney to review it and see what has or has not been done and if there is a will and if you can file a caveat to it.