Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

Re: Change of executor

The first question that I would ask is whether this estate has been in probate court for that length of time or not.

If you have attempted to contact the existing executor and your attempts have failed to prompt action, your next step would be to have a probate estate opened, if one has never been opened to date.

Does the current executor give any reasons as to why the distributions haven't been made? Are there any problems that are holding up final distributions?

Sometimes difficulty in selling property, liens against estate property, tax difficulties, etc. can slow down the final distributions in an estate. Since you say that you are the sole heir, I assume that there is no will contest going on.

If the matter has been in probate court all of this time, you need to obtain an attorney to represent you in compelling the court to order the current executor to show cause why the distribution has not been made.

Please let me know if you have a follow-up question based on the above assumptions.