Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois
My mother was murdered when i was a yr old and the man who raised me adopted me when i was 7 well when i turned 21 these people who knew my mom and her family gave me all these documents stating i have money which i do i have stocks and other money that im paying taxes on but cant touch even though he was supposed to give it to me when i turned 21 i am now 22. i looked it up online about guardianship and i found tht basically he can only be guardian for life if he proved me entally incompitent which i am not. i do remeber signing something not sure how old i was over 3 years ago though bu he never specifies what i was signing at that time i trusted him and considered him my dad so never thought anything of it. what should i do? is it legal for me to be paying taxes on money i cant touch? and if i signed something can i go back on it? when i talked to morgan stanley where some of my money i know is at they told me wait till he gives it to me wait till he dies or get alawyer i hate to hve to take him to court but its not fair that money was for me from my mothers murder why should he have control over it still?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Right now, your adoptive father is in charge of the money that your mother left to you. From what you describe, it seems as if you may have been entitled to receive this money when you turned 18, but your adoptive father encouraged you to sign a document that gave him control beyond your 18th birthday. That document may have allowed an adult Guardianship or, more likely, placed all of your funds into a Trust.
Either way, you have certain rights in regards to your funds. You have the right to know how much you have and how it is earning income and being spent. You also have the right to know the terms of your adoptive father's control over these funds. If you are guided by a skilled attorney in this area, you may be able to personally get all of these funds or remove your adoptive father from the picture.
Feel free to call me for a free consultation. I've handled similar matters before, and I'd be happy to help.
I believe the first place to make inquiries is with your adoptive dad. Even if you are legally entitled to the money, your dad may be worried that you may not handle the money responsibly, or be taken advantage of by others. Most likely if dad is making it hard for you to gain control only for these reasons, he probably would have to surrender control to you. However, what your rights are and what dad's duties are depend on the documents creating the accounts the monies are invested in. Before any attorney can advise you, this information needs to be obtained. We hope doubts can be resolved so that you can preserve your personal relationship with your dad.
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