Estate Attorney still holding funds after 19 years...
Location: Kentucky
It's been almost two decades, and the attorney overseeing my great uncle's estate is still holding over $23,000 in funds. He's made excuses for years as to why he hasn't turned this unclaimed money over to the State Treasurer's office. In my last correspondence with him, he told me I had received my share of the inheritance and that no more funds were coming my way. He says other heirs have been unresponsive all this time, and speculates (correctly) that many are deceased, but that he will continue searching and move down to children/grandchildren of these deceased heirs if that's the case.
He's frankly full of s*** and stands to benefit nothing by wasting his time doing this, and thus has HASN'T been doing jack for the better part of 20 years. No one is alive that even knew my great uncle, so they'll assume it's a scam even if he manages to locate them (which he won't). I acknowledge that I don't know the law, but is there nothing that says the one person he is capable of contacting (me) is eligible to receive the remaining balance on the estate given the amount of time that has passed? Does this money have to sit in his coffers for all eternity while he draws interest and pays himself legal fees? It's not a ton of money in relative terms, so I'm afraid of paying an attorney and nothing come of it, but I really don't know what else I can do to get him to relinquish these funds to someone/anyone.