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Please Help no Will

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Amber

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? pa.My brother live with my mother for the past ten years,she told me, my brother knew were her will was.She showed me and my daughters Jewelry approx $100.000 worth,and told me at her death a especial diamond ring was mine along with the rest of the jewelry, and any moneys would be split equally between my brother and my self.
Several years ago I found out that mother titled the ownership of the home to him.
Over the past 6 months my mother was dieing of cancer my brother and I took care of her.
At her death my brother informed me he had no idea were she put the will it was never recorded.He had her transfer her bank account to a both his or her account, and I have no right to go to the account because it in his name. Going thru her belongings he gave over a hundred empathy jewelry boxes and claimed he had no Idea what my mom did with it. Before her death she was to receive a inheritance of $50.000 from a friend the estate was being settled and she asked me what was taking so long for the money, I called the attorney handling the estate and he told me my brother took her from the hospice and brings her into the office in a wheelchair in Nov. before the Holiday. Do I have any recourse to get anything back..... a simple yes or no thank.
 


lwpat

Senior Member
Basically your brother has s***** you and stolen all the money. Your brother has also destroyed the will. I would immediately go to the courthouse and file for probate listing yourself as personal representative. He will surely contest and you will need several thousand dollars for attorney fees. Once you have been appointed personal representative you can try to force him to provide the information. Even if you win all you will get is a judgment and he can hide the money and file bankruptcy. You probably have a good case but it will take several years to prevail. Start with her doctors and the time period she would have been able to act for herself. Get a copy of the deed to the house and talk to the attorney that prepared it. See if he actually talked to your mother or just your brother.

One avenue open to you is to go ahead and report the missing jewelry to the police. At least that might force him to own up to taking it. He probably sold the jewelry locally and you can find out how much he received. If not there may be some insurance you could file for once you are the representative.

Your problem is he will claim she gave him everything. If she was in her right mind, she could do as she wished.

It is important that you act immediately since the court looks more favorably on the one that files first if they are equally entitled to be personal representative. Don't worry about your relationship with your brother, there isn't one. He will try to blow smoke but don't lsiten or let him lay a guilt trip on you.
 
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seniorjudge

Senior Member
Amber said:
What is the name of your state? pa.My brother live with my mother for the past ten years,she told me, my brother knew were her will was.She showed me and my daughters Jewelry approx $100.000 worth,and told me at her death a especial diamond ring was mine along with the rest of the jewelry, and any moneys would be split equally between my brother and my self.
Several years ago I found out that mother titled the ownership of the home to him.
Over the past 6 months my mother was dieing of cancer my brother and I took care of her.
At her death my brother informed me he had no idea were she put the will it was never recorded.He had her transfer her bank account to a both his or her account, and I have no right to go to the account because it in his name. Going thru her belongings he gave over a hundred empathy jewelry boxes and claimed he had no Idea what my mom did with it. Before her death she was to receive a inheritance of $50.000 from a friend the estate was being settled and she asked me what was taking so long for the money, I called the attorney handling the estate and he told me my brother took her from the hospice and brings her into the office in a wheelchair in Nov. before the Holiday. Do I have any recourse to get anything back..... a simple yes or no thank.

There is no simple yes or no answer; here is where the stuff will go:

http://www.finance.cch.com/pops/c50s10d190_PA.asp

Pennsylvania Intestate Succession Laws

If any part of a Pennsylvania decedent's estate is not effectively disposed of by will, the intestate share will be distributed in the following order and manner:

1. Surviving spouse. A surviving spouse is generally first in line to get any assets from the intestate estate. However, the amount a surviving spouse is entitled to varies as follows:

* A surviving spouse is entitled to the entire intestate estate if the decedent is not survived by a child or parent.
* If there are no surviving children of the decedent, but there is a surviving parent or parents, the surviving spouse is entitled to the first $30,000 plus one-half of the remaining intestate estate. There is an exception to this rule if a decedent died due to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which case the surviving spouse gets 100 percent of any compensation award paid under the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.
* If the decedent is survived by children all of whom are also the children of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse is entitled to the first $30,000 plus one-half of the remaining intestate estate.
* If the decedent is survived by children one or more of whom are not issue of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse gets one-half of the intestate estate.
* When there is a partial intestacy, any property received by the surviving spouse under the will counts towards satisfying the $30,000 allowance mentioned above.

2. Heirs other than surviving spouse. Any part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse as indicated above, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes as follows to:

1. Decedent's issue.
2. Decedent's parent or parents equally.
3. Decedent's brothers and sisters, or their issue.
4. If none of the above relatives are available, but the decedent is survived by one or more grandparents or issue of grandparents, half of the estate passes to the paternal grandparents if both survive, or to the surviving paternal grandparent or to the issue of the paternal grandparents if both are deceased. The other half passes to the maternal relatives in the same manner. If there is no surviving grandparent or issue of grandparent on either the paternal or maternal side, the entire estate passes to the relatives on the other side in the same manner as the half portion would.
5. Decedent's uncles and aunts and their children and grandchildren.

3. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. If there is no taker under any of the above provisions, the intestate estate passes to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Intestate Succession Law Fun Facts

* Relatives of the half blood inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood.
* Relatives conceived before decedent's death, but born thereafter, inherit as if they had been born during decedent's lifetime.
* A spouse who willfully neglected or refused to support a deceased spouse or who willfully and maliciously deserted the deceased spouse for one year or upwards prior to the spouse's death cannot inherit any title or interest in the deceased spouses's intestate estate.
* Likewise, a parent who fails to support their minor or dependent child, who deserts them for a year, or is convicted of certain crimes against the child forfeits the right to their share of the child's intestate estate.
* Evildoers take note! Any person who participates either as a principal or as an accessory before the fact in the willful and unlawful killing of the decedent is prohibited from receiving any benefits from the killing, including a share in the intestate estate.
* Pennsylvania's intestate succession laws, as well as other related laws, can be found in Title 20 of Purdon's Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Annotated.

Copyright 2002 - 2006, CCH Incorporated, a Wolters Kluwer business. All Rights Reserved.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
If there is an attorney for the estate, there is no need for him to file to be PR.

Do you have any idea of what assets are left in the estate now? The estate attorney should be able to tell you this.

Sounds as if brother may have also gotten a power of attorney signed by mother before she died to give him permission to handle her financial affairs. Your attorney can ask your brother IF he got power of attorney. You need to be asking a probate attorney or business law attorney (your own attorney, NOT the estate attorney, since he is biased in favor of your brother and against you) whether your state has laws against abuse of POA. If he had POA he was supposed to use the money only to pay for your mother's care, but he probably got access to and kept most of it for himself. He now needs to provide an accounting of how he spent that money or else face charges. But please don't tell HIM any of this--keep that a secret along with your attorney.

It's not fair for him to rob the estate blind and then have nothing left over for other beneficiaries. Are there other beneficiaries besides you?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)
 

pojo2

Senior Member
He probably sold the jewelry locally and you can find out how much he received. If not there may be some insurance you could file for once you are the representative.

If that figure is 100K of jewelry (hard to tell with the period in there) it is probably only worth 10K on the street.

Most insurance policies will only cover a small amountof jewelry loss UNLESS there was a jewlery (shoot I can't think of the term) rider attached to the policy.

You are naive if you think this is

a simple yes or no thank.

No one here knows how the title to the house reads, no one can tell you if the banks accounts were set up so that at her death the accounts were your brothers, such as POD acccounts.

No one knows if many things were done out of appreciation for bro staying with her all these years or if bro was helping himself to everything.

There is NO simple yes or no.
 

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