Home > Research Legal Advice > Probate > I inherited money from my parents 2 years ago.
I have not receive anyth...
Asked about 1 year ago - Poughkeepsie, NY
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My brothers are the executor and the power of attorney.
They will not cooperate.
Thank you.
I am a NY lawyer. If you have not gotten anything, you have not inherited anything. Were you left something under a will? If so, you need to compel an accounting. If anything was left to as a designated beneficiary, you can collect this yourself by contacting the company yourself. You mentioned a power of attorney which is no longer effective on death.
Do you know if distributions have already been made by the estate and whether there are any conditions upon your inheritance? Is there an issue regarding the disposition of less than liquid assets?
Have you checked the court files to see if anything is going on in the case? You can check NY cases on:
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/ecourt...
Your first step is to call the surrogate court in the county in which your last parent died. You need to know if there was a will probated for that parent. For a variety of reasons the will may not have been offered for probate. If it was, you should order a copy of it. Does it contain a gift to you? If so, contact the attorney of record to inquire about the status of the estate, and the timeline for the paying of any bequest to you under the will.
If there is a will, and you are not mentioned in it, generally you are out of luck.
If you know there was a will and it wasn't probated, there are usually good reasons for it. In some circumstances the will is never probated, because there isn't anything that the will can control. Probate of a will is necessary to transfer solely owned assets to the estate which liquidates the assets, pays all the bills and eventually pays what's left according to the terms of the will. If there are no assets, there is no reason to probate the will. That's why it's important to contact the court to see if anything has been done. As an example, say all the property your parents owned were made joint with one of your siblings before the last death. That money passes to joint owner and the will doesn't change that. Or, your parent may have set up a trust that has different terms than the will that the trust replaced.
If you are sure there are assets, and there is no probate, you really have to contact an estate attorney to look into it for you. I would nose around to try to find out which attorney has dealt with your parents and what the facts of the matter are.
So, two things, find out about the probate of the will from your parent's county surrogate court, including ordering a copy of the will. Then calling the attorney of record. Secondly, if there is no probate try to find out who your parents attorney was and speak to him. Failing that, hire an attorney to look into it for you if you think there is enough money at stake to justify the expense.
Cooperation and secrecy are never a good thing. And if you cannot afford a lawyer your options are quite limited. You need to go to the county where the will was probated to get all the filings, wills, tax returns, notices, etc. If there are hard to value assets or if the estate is involved in litigation or other there are multiple parcels of real estate, then 2 years may not be a problem. But for the run of the mill estates, this may be indicative of greater problems especially in light of the executor being less than cooperative. If you can at least sit down with an estates attorney with what you get to obtain an opinion as to what can be done.
Hope this helps.
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Mr. Fromm is licensed to practice law throughout the state of PA with offices in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties. He is authorized to handle IRS matters throughout the United States. His phone number is 215-735-2336 or his email address is sjfpc@comcast.net , his website for more tax, estate and business articles is www.sjfpc.com. and his blog is
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