Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Ohio

My daughter passed away February 1, 2014, and she had a life insurance policy thru her employer, but no beneficiary was listed, I obtained an attorney in West Virginia to handle the legal matters, ii might add that she has a 9yr.old daughter. I was told that because I have poor credit that I could not file to be head of her estate, so my brother paid monies to be head of the estate and was told the monies were needed as a bond on the estate. It has been two years and still the attorney hired hasn't resolved this issue, now my brother is being asked to pay another bond. We are being told that the insurance company doesn't want to release the estate funds because there isn't a legal guardian for her daughter. I'm not really understanding the legality of what's going on, but I, myself, only want to make sure that my daughters burial is taken care of. The whole situation has me stressed and not in the right frame of mind, its very hard. Is there any steps that I can take against the attorney to get this matter resolved? They have given me the feeling that they (attorney) do not know what they're doing. Also I'm not able to obtain another person to represent me, after paying them.


Asked on 2/10/16, 9:42 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Christine Socrates Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis

If the estate was properly set up, the insurance company should be able to pay the estate (through the administrator appointed). Once that is received, a guardianship needs to be set up for your granddaughter and a guardian appointed. From there, the administrator can transfer the money to the guardianship and the estate closed out once all the paperwork is completed as required. It sounds like that attorney has not handled this properly, but there may be other issues that you are not aware of that may have held this up. I would need to look at the probate estate file to find out what really has happened. www.socrateslegal.com

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Answered on 3/28/16, 7:02 am


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