Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Missouri

What rights do I have as an heir.

My uncle died recently leaving two heirs, my brother and me. He had a will but I am not sure if he had a trust. My brother is the executor and has been giving his son expensive items from my uncle's house. I have good reason not to trust my brother and wonder how I can see the will. Does he have to file the will with probate if there was a trust? My brother was to receive a larger portion of the estate than I. If items in one's home are sold or given away, must an account of these have to be made? I wish I knew how my uncle left his house. Can I find out if it was deeded to my brother? I have reason not to rock the boat because there are a few personal items of my uncle's that I would like to have. He and I were best friends for sixty years and I am referring to some worthless, but priceless to me, items. I thought about goind to my uncle's attorney for advice, but wonder if this would be a conflict of interest in case he is helping my brother.

Thank you and thank you for an informative website.


Asked on 1/13/09, 7:36 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael R. Nack Michael R. Nack, Attorney at Law

Re: What rights do I have as an heir.

You need to hire your own attorney. The Will should be filed in the county where your uncle died or where his real estate was located or both. You can go to the Probate Court and read the Will if it has been filed. If not, youcan file a suit to force the person with possession of the Will to bring it to court. If there was a trust, the trust document itself is not a public document, like a Will. Howevr, there is a statute under which you can file a suit to force whoever has the trust document to provide it to determine if you are named a beneficiary under the trust. Either way, as each day goes by, more and more stuff will be taken out of your uncle's home and perhaps even worse things will happen. It is much easier to do an inventory of everything before anything is given away than to try to reconstruct a list of what was there at the time of your uncle's death. Protecting your own legal interest is certainly what you should do. It can be done without unecessariy causing any personal problems with the other people involved unless someone is up to no good.

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Answered on 1/13/09, 11:41 pm


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