Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois
I reside in Illinois & I am executor to my mothers estate. I am on her bank accounts with rights of survivorship. From what I have read, any money that was left should go directly to me and not be part of the estate. It took 1 1/2 years to get her house emptied and decorated to sell and in the mean time any bills that needed to be paid I was paying with what was left in the account until it ran out. She still had a mortgage and utility bills, insurance and taxes which I have had to pay - I know I will get this back out of the final accounting. One of my siblings is holding up the closing of the probate because she thinks my mother had more money and has requested bank statements going back to 2 years before she died. My questions is, legally, because I was joint on the bank accounts and have rights of survivorship, do I have to provide the statements she is asking for and if I don't, can the court subpoena the bank statement even though they should not have been part of the estate.
3 Answers from Attorneys
If your sister has filed a Citation to Discover or Recover Assets with the Probate Court alleging that you have misused your relationship with your mother to gain control of her assets or that you are hiding assets she can request the past bank statements to prove her case or she can subpoena them from the bank. You can either provide them willingly or make her pay for the old statements. If she subpoenas the records and wins her case, the court will make you reimburse her for the cost of the records. Refusing to give her the statements makes it look like you have something to hide so I suggest that you give her copies of whatever statements you have. If the Estate doesn't have a lawyer, I suggest that you hire one.
I hope this doesn't sound flip, but as executor you must have an attorney representing you. You should get your advice on specific issues like this directly from your attorney only.
Your sister will still be your sister even after the estate is closed. If I were advising you, I'd probably say give her the information she's asking for. But yes, if you have an attorney, you should be taking advice from him or her. It would be wrong for you to attempt to bypass the authority of your own attorney and wrong for anyone else to attempt to subvert that relationship.
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