Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York
Work of an administrator
My mother passed away recently, leaving three heirs, no
property or other assets, and no debts except
for funeral bills---but she unexpectedly did have about
$40,000 in cash from a recent out-of-court settlement of a
wrongful injury lawsuit. My brother is petitioning to be
administrator of this estate. My sister and I have our
doubts about how he handled my father�s considerably larger
estate as executor ten years ago but at the time we decided
not to file a legal challenge. This
time, I am thinking about petitioning to be
co-administrator. The attorney who represented the case is
willing to submit a petition with my name as well as my
brother�s, and my sister is willing to sign a waiver.
However, I live outside the U.S. What is an estimate of how
much work we may be talking about, spread over how many days
or weeks, so that I can schedule a trip back to New York
accordingly? If I end up not scheduling enough time, can I
complete some of the work of an executor from a distance?
Can I hire an attorney to do the remaining work for me? As
I said, there are very few details to take care of, and this
time I would rather exercise my rights than be passive
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Work of an administrator
All children are equally entitled to appointment. Those not desiring to serve must waive the right or at least be notified and can contest single appointment. You need not be present to qualify, just sign the forms in most instances. The appointment only takes a few days, if uncontested, so both of you can be appointed. In most instances the attorney can do all the work. In cases as these, I have the assets deposited to the attorneys' trust account, have him prepare a simple accounting and get whatever forms are necessary for distribution from each heir, and close the estate. Since the estate is small, a single asset, once this is done, things could move quickly and the estate closed in a matter of weeks.
Re: Work of an administrator
You can do all the necessary work from home. No need to travel.
Your lawyer will send the necessary papers to you and if you are outside the United Staes you will have a little bit of trouble getting the papers notarized.
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