Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New Jersey
Executrix will not distribute without all benificieries signing.
The executrix of my Uncle's estate, of which I'm 1 of 5 heirs (Me, my Brother, my Sister the executrix, 2 cousins) , will not distribute the residual estate until she receives ALL four signed and notorized letters of approval. I just want my share not anyone else's. She has delayed this distribution time and again resulting in the loss of money for taxes in the 29 months since my Uncle's death. Is it necessary for her to have all the letters before distributing the estate? She has 3 of the 4. What happens if one of the equal shares does not approve? No one gets their inheritance? The bills have been paid and there are no outstanding debts. The income taxes have been files and there is money held out in case there are any further taxes. She is just holding the money. She has taken a long time in performing her duties. The four other heirs have not taken legal action to remove her from the executrix duties, but we aren't happy with her performance. What can be done? Can she just pay those that have filed their letters?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Executrix will not distribute without all benificieries signing.
She is right not to pay until everyone has signed off. If she pays some of the beneficiaries and later, the "hold-out" takes her to court and she incurs additional expenses, or the court surcharges her or disagrees with how she distributed the estate, then she would have to go back to the beneficiaries and ask them to re-pay her.
The better question is why is the one person not willing to sign off? If they continue to refuse to sign off, an option would be for the executor to file her accounting and ask the court to approve it. If approved, she could make distributions and know that the beneficiary could not challenge her or complain that something was improper.
Re: Executrix will not distribute without all benificieries signing.
I concur with Jon. I have handled numerous estates, as counsel to executors, and would not allow any distributions to be made until all beneficiaries sign off. One holdout, if legitimate, can create big problems, particularly if the assets have already been distributed to the other recipients. The questions here are: why has the holdout refused to sign? Is the position legitimate? A formal accounting procedure in the Court can overcome this problem, but can be an expensive procedure. You do not describe the complexity or simplicity of the underlying estate, which might take that long to settle, if estate and/or inheritance taxes were involved. Since the heirs involved may not all be direct ones (spouse, children, parents, etc.), in heritance taxes would be involved. This could, but may not, account not only for the delay, but also for the inability to sell stock that might be decling in value as a Tax Waiver would be required to sell the stock. If you have any further questions, contact me at your convenience.
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