No Will, now what do we do?

[Plant Woman]

Some how I knew I would be mopping up this mess, so here I am 5 months after the death of my father, and brother, who Dad name executer to his scribbled will on a piece of paper, has done nothing.

Not that my father had anything of value, but we have a fifth wheel, diesel truck and a beater car sitting. The scribbled on a piece of paper, not notorized, will says sell everything and divide it up.

Brother is not doing anything, he didn't cancel the car insurance, the hospital bills and doctor bills are still coming to me, although I did all the leg work to make sure medicare and medicaid was in place. I turned everything over to my brother, gave him all the information, had it all organized for him, so that he could call every place and give them the medicade #'s etc.

I had a phone call from the funeral home saying my brother had not taken care of getting the life insurance money to them. I asked why they didn't call them as I had given them his phone number. He isn't returning their calls. Turns out my name is on the contract too and they will turn it over to collections agency (although they said that is the last thing they want to do.) The insurance issued a check to my brother who was the beneficiary. He claims he didn't receive it and so all he needed to do was call the insurance company, they would stop payment on the check and reissue the check to the funeral home. I leave an angry message on his voice mail, explaining what he needs to do. He calls me back and tells me, "don't believe everything you hear. " My brother already is notorious for not returning phone calls, and then he lies on top of it. I just tell him to take care of it as its going to be my credit that is hurt. He should have taken care of it 3 months ago.

So I am going to ask him to send everything to me and let me get this done so we can all have closure. I need to find out who to contact about the vehicles, to see if this goes into probate, or what. None of it is of any value and once I take care of the billings from the hospitals and doctors and give them the #'s they need to get their money, there will be nothing owed. However, from what I understand anything of value automatically goes into probate. Oh I just remembered that Dad sold some property so there may be some taxes owed on it. I tried to get my father to get a will notorized and to file his taxes in April. The only thing I was able to accomplish there is get an extension. I gave the tax info to brother and told him the extension was until August. I doubt he took care of it.

Oh and my brother thinks that he will just sign the titles of the vehicles and RV (his name is the same) and sell them. Of course now is not a good time to be selling the RV as it is the end of the season. It is illegal for him to do this, right?

Anyone have any advice of who I need to talk to get this stuff taken care of?
Dad was a resident of Oregon, he sold some property in California last year, and his vehicles and RV are all registered in Oregon. I don't believe there will be much money to divvy up, and I don't really care, I just want to quit getting notices from the hospitals and other places that this is all overdue, when it just takes a phone call for them to get paid.

Damn, I can't believe this is back in my lap!

[Dingfod]

Brother sounds like a real wiener.

[Plant Woman]

Thanks for letting me rant, too!

[Leesifer]

What a pain, Deb.

From the sounds of it though, you are much better of in the long run sorting this out yourself. At least you'll know it will be finalised and, as you say, you can get closure.

If I were you, I wouldn't even call my brother after it's sorted out. Just let him make some effort to get in touch with you - which by the sounds of it, I'm sure he will if he thinks there may be some money in it for him.

:huggle:

[Legs]

Your Brother is an irresponsible PITA.

:hug:

[Puck]

Unless you signed a financial agreement with the funeral home, you are not responsible for paying them. Same for anyone else.

I would tell brother to either sign over excecutor powers to you, or you will no longer be involved in any way.

You don't have to receive phone calls from anyone about your Fathers estate, unless you have a legal obligation to them. Refuse to be drawn into it. Call anyone who sends mail to you and tell them your brother's address and let them know you have nothing to do with it. Then if you get anything more from them, write Return To Sender and pop it back in the mail.

I'm sorry that your Brother is irresponsible about this. But unless he signs over to you, this isn't your baggage and as such, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. What a sucky situation, though.

[Plant Woman]

Thanks for the thoughts.

Leesifer, Thanks for that, I try to keep my contact with family as little as possible, anything to do with them winds up being a problem in some way. Legs, what's s PITA? Oh wait I just figured it out--pain in the ...

Puck, Actually legally my brother does not have executor powers, since there is no legal will. So it doesn't matter who does it, as far as I know. This morning I called all the medical places and collectors, explained the situation and try to get the paper work back from him, to see what is left to do. Medicaid will pay everything that medicare won't, so there is no reason for letting that slide. I don't want to be sucked back into the family dynamics, but I am the kind of person that knowing these loose ends are not tied up, I won't feel good about it. Especially with all the leg work I did to assure this wouldn't happen. I really appreciate your feedback, thanks!

What I need to know now is who to contact regarding how to sell the vehicles, do they go into probate, or does it need to value a certain amount before they even bother? I have no idea who to contact regarding this.

.

[yguy]

What I need to know now is who to contact regarding how to sell the vehicles, do they go into probate, or does it need to value a certain amount before they even bother? I have no idea who to contact regarding this..

If you are in doubt about the possibility of probate, and you haven't talked to an attorney, I'd do it. Yesterday.

[ms_ann_thrope]

You are in Oregon, right, PW? I think you should contact an attorney (http://www.osbar.org/public/ris/ris.html#referral) to help you sort out what needs to be done. :yup:

[godfry n. glad]

No, she's in Washington. But that doesn't change the advice any. I think you need a one-time meeting with an attorney versed in probate issues. The problem there is that such an attorney could see just about enough issues to leave little to nothing in any kind of inheritance. This is the reason my father set up a trust....everything he owned went into his personal trust, and he named his two sons and their wives as trustees.

If there is no will, I think probate is required. But then, there may be a minimal amount of property involved before the requirement for probate kicks in....but I wouldn't know what that is, if it exists.

As for your father making some last minute appointment of who is to be the executor of his estate...unless that is witnessed and notarized, I don't think it has much in the way of legal standing. I think the state will have primary say in the dispensation of his estate.

As noted...see an attorney specializing in probate. (That'll cost you about $450 an hour).

[godfry n. glad]

Just out of curiosity, is this whole fracas taking place in Washington state?

Or, is it in another state entirely?

I have a rather long-winded rendition of dealing with New York lawyers in New York, from Oregon, over the disposition of my mother-in-law's estate in Manhattan. Including a rent-controlled apartment.

Moral of story made short: Never trust the executor of an estate, particularly if they are good friends with the attorney who drew up the will.

[Plant Woman]

Oh we know all about that godfry, my husband's mother was executor to her father's will and she cleaned out all the accounts that was supposed to be divvied up between the grandkids. She had power of attorney so she could do that. Basically she legally stole 40,000 dollars from my husband.

My dad died in Washington, but his vehicles are registered in Oregon.

Thanks ms ann your link helped me to figure out how to find the one for Washington. There may be so little that they will not require it to go through probate, from what I read so far, but that has to be determined by someone else and not the family.

[Plant Woman]

Well, I am in the doghouse with my family for making a stink about what's going on. I am once again labelled the troublemaker for insisting my brother get off his butt and take care of things. Because of him a couple hundred dollars has been lost, some of my Dad's medical bills are in collections, and of course he came close to ruining my credit because he didn't take care of the insurance problem that cropped up, that was to cover the cemetary expenses. I was liable because I'm the one that made all the funeral arrangements. They were ready to go to collections and it would have been my problem. Fortunately the latter problem is no longer a problem, as he took care of it and he said he sent in all the medicaid coupons, last week. AFAIK, he hasn't taken care of the taxes yet or found out about probate.

I am making all necessary calls about what to do with the vehicles, what taxes are owed and keeping track of everything I have done, and sending a couple of registered letters to my brother, to be sure that my ass is covered. I do not want any more surprises.

I am not going to be in contact with my family anymore. I wash my hands of them and their chaotic lifestyles. You would think with all they preach about God and family values that they would be more responsible in their commitments. My brother is a minister of a church. On his web site he advertises financial planning classes taught in the community, you would think he would be, wouldn't you? He seems to be the one in need of that class.

Thanks for letting me vent.