Legal Question in Elder Law in Massachusetts

Death of Parent

My dad passed away on 6/9/07-Mom is 86 and is confused and tired. She had her financial consultant over last week to help her go through the paperwork in reference to Dad's pensions. Dad also had a large coin collection. I found out from Mom yesterday that she had the financial advisor take the coins with him to get a price. She had no idea how many he took or what he took. Mom doesn't make much sense completing a whole sentence - my sister and I are uncomfortable with the situation and would like to call up this advisor and ask him to return them. We feel it is too soon for my Mother to make these decisions, and we also feel that he should have advised her of this. This man works for Commonwealth Financial Network. Please Advise.


Asked on 7/19/07, 7:08 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Death of Parent

You certainly have the right to ask with your mother's permission. However, I have several questions for you:

Did your father have a Will? if so, have you filed it with the probate court?

If your father had a Will, who is the executor under the Will? that person should take control of your father's assets, including the coin collection as these things need to be accounted for to the Probate Court.

Also, if your father had a Trust, if someone other than your mother is the Trustee they need to take control of the trust assets.

A Will should be filed within 30days of the date of death. There is no penalty for not doing so. Without knowing if there is anything to probate or not it is difficult to advise you in this area. If there is an Executor then the Executor deals with your father's property not handled by a retirement an account assuming your mother is the beneficiary.

You might want to have your mother give you or your sister a limited power of attorney now and a Durable Power of Attorney for later when she is unable to handle her own affairs.

Please feel free to contact me without obligation, if you have more questions.

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Answered on 7/19/07, 6:00 pm


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