Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Washington
Estate inventory challenge
Mom's '92 will leaves everything to us kids, with my cousin (an aviation atty) named as her PR. Mom diagnosed: dementia in late 90's & Alzheimer's in 2001. We prep Mom's house for sale & locate 6 bank accounts. 2 days later, PR drives Mom around & reduces these accts to 3 - he's added as JTWROS to all (we don't hear about this til 8/06). He emails us that she gave him POA over her financial affairs. We trust him, so we don't blink. He'd already taken over her bill-paying because she'd proven she couldn't manage her financial affairs. Late 2001, he sells her house, liquidates her investments & deposits over $300,000 to a new credit union acct. We all just assumed he moved the other accts to the new c.u. Flash forward - Mom dies 7/06. 8/06 is the 1st time he mentions that her 2 Key Bank accts now total almost 75K & asks what we'd like to see him do with the money (he says he doesn't know what happened to the WaMu acct (we later find it dormant - bal 24K). He ignores our requests, declares he's keeping 10K and giving the now 72K Key Bank $ to our kids & grandkids in the form of checks payable to us, ''as Trustee, to be held in trust for your children's education''. He says he's donating the 24K WaMu $ to charity. Can he do this?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Estate inventory challenge
If you have not done so all ready, you need to lawyer up immediately.
There is a time and a place to ask for free advice, and this is not it.
There are all kinds of red flags in this fact pattern. You need to print out what you wrote and call your local Bar association - or go to the clerk's office and look at the probate file, and perhaps some other probate files to see who is a good atty who does a lot of work in this area locally.
You are raising some important issues that I cannot responsibly address without seeing the file.
It is time to get real help. Powell
Re: Estate inventory challenge
Just so you know Ms. Powell isn't alone in her assessment, the facts provided are rediculously complex to expect a response from a free legal advice site. Spend the $100 or so for a consultation with a probate attorney in your area.
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