Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: settling an estate

Any estate assets must be distributed as per NY's intestacy statute. Exact distributions depend on which family members survived (e.g., equally among all children, etc.).

You should contact the treasury department as to how to redeem the cash.

You may contact my office at 212-401-2990 or at [email protected] to discuss your case.

Good luck,

Anthony S. Park

Re: settling an estate

I agree with Tony, but call your attention to the following. The probable reason a bank does not want to get involved with the cash, is not because of its condition, but the amount. There are very specific reporting requirements to IRS, if a cash deposit exceeds $10,000. In this day and age of money laundering and terrorism, most banks do not want to deal in large cash deposits. I also suggest contacting the U. S. Treasury on how to handle this item. Understand that if there is no logical explanation for a cash hoard of such size, they may report this to IRS who will presume it represents unreported income, subject to income taxes. As Tony indicated, the cash should be considered part of your FIL's estate, and is subject to being included in the estate, for determining what, if any, federal or NY estate and/or inheritance taxes may be due. The estate is subject to distribution in accordance with NY's intestacy laws, and you do not indicate how many heirs will participate in the estate. You might consider shifting the problem of the cash among all heirs, by distributing the money to those who will partake in the estate, and let them each work out the problem with their respective banks, Treasury Department, etc. In any event, your husband will have to account for the money when he settles the estate.