Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Indiana

Re: attorneys duties in distribution of estate

Creditors of a decedent have a period of 5 months from the date of publication of notice of appointment of a personal representative of the estate to file claims. If the administration is supervised, a petiton for authority to sell the property must be filed with the Court and the Court must approve the sale. An inventory is due 60 days after the personal representative is appointed. It is difficult to assess your situation from the facts, but presumptively your attorney is being conservative in requiring that no assets be sold for the claims period and is correct in questioning a sale for $5,000 less than appraised value. If all the devisees or heirs are in agreement, the sale should only be consumated with all of them signing consents to the sale and acknowledgements that the price is below the appraised value and waive any objections to that. Many families want to rush through the probate administration process and in doing so cause headaches for the courts and their attorneys because rush means making mistakes or complications that are more difficult to correct later. Just be patient.