Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois

My husband is trying to stettle his estate. His mother died in 1998. She made out a will in 1993 giving him and his brother sixty arces and in the will she also gave my husband her house. The sixty arces also included the building site which has my husband house and his brother's house and barn and sheds. They are dairy farmers but the brother holds the interest in the dairy. In 1988 their mother inhietited $500,000 from her parents estate. The brother's wife that worked at the local bank basically had control over this money. In 1991, the daughter-in-law informed the mother that the money was all gone and accounts had been closed up. Then in 1995 the brother and daughter-in-law had a contact drawn up having the sons buying the farm equally to get the land out of their mothers name so if she went into a rest home, the state couldn't come back on her and take the farm. She was awarded to the state and left with nothing at the time of her death. The older brother was made exeuctor of her estate but we don't know what she had left at the time of her death. Getting back to my husband situation- From that sixty acres that was their mother's, he has never gotten any rent. He also inhieteted 65 arces in which the first year he was given $3000.00 rent but told his brother to put it back into the farm- their mother needed it more. Since then he as not received any rent on it since. A agrement was made for the use of the crops off the 65 acress, my husband would get 14% of the milk check twice amonth and property taxes would be paid by the older brother. Where does my husband stand in this stituation? Thank you Ann RB


Asked on 5/15/12, 4:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

1. Mom's estate must first be settled. Real estate given by will must be probated.

2. When you say she gave your husband her house, did it include any land, because you would want it to have at least the minimum amount of land to be conforming from a zoning standpoint (every house has to have a minimum lot under it) and access to it from a public highway.

3. If mom transferred her assets in 1995 and passed in 1998 owing any kind of public assistance, there is a 5-year look-back rule and the State could come after any assets that had not been fully disposed of, potentially including her house.

4. The older brother appears to have breached his duties as executor by not filing an inventory and following through on the house?

5. When mom sold the 60 acres to her children (if there was no real consideration it was a gift and there may have been gift tax consequences as well as the 5-year look-back rule) everyone became entitled to share in any rents and profits "equally". If one of the other sibs took the rent and didn't share it, there may be other issues.

6. The 65 acres - he inherited it apparently on his own and got $3000 in rent but gave it to his brother to help support mom. There are several issues with that, since it may have been taxable income, he gave a gift but it was intended to support mom and if he could claim her as a dependent that would be an issue.

7. No idea why he hasn't received any more rent on the 65 acres unless he didn't rent it out.

8. No clue what the "agreement" for use of the crops does to anything let alone what that means.

9. 14% of the "milk check" suggests this was a dairy operation and the 14% was net after taxes but were they paid...

10. Where does your husband stand? There are SO many questions that it would take several hours to unravel everything before any really intelligent answers could be given. But it sounds like he let a lot of people handle things that he needed to control, and he very well needs some legal and tax help.

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Answered on 5/15/12, 5:24 pm


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