r/EstatePlanning

My mother, aged 57, passed away a month ago due to cosmetic abdominal surgery. Her partner, whom she was not married to, had her sign a Quit Claim Deed with survivorship rights in 2022 instead of putting her name on the title of the house. They had been living together since 2017 and decided to buy the home in 2019, but for some reason, her partner took sole ownership of the mortgage loan, even though they split the monthly payments. In 2022, after she insisted that she had no rights to the house if something happened, he had her sign the deed. I am still living in the house with him, but now he wants me to leave, claiming everything inside is his property, despite some furniture my mother bought before their relationship in 2016, for which I have receipts. He is also demanding $8,000 (to pay the loan of the abdominal surgery) from my mother’s life insurance, of which I am the sole beneficiary, and refusing to let me take the furniture she purchased before meeting him. I not going to pay him $8,000,When I have to cover all the funeral expenses, and he never asks if I’m okay or what his part is.

Background: I’m 32 years old, don’t have kids, and my mother and I have always been close. I know all her information—bank accounts, passwords, everything—and I’ve been the one to pay the bills and keep the household organized. She and her partner just contribute their share of the money. He’s 57, has no children, but my mother has always told me not to trust him. I put my life on hold to be with my mother and take care of her because we are immigrants. We started from scratch in the USA, sleeping in a friend’s living room in 2014, eventually becoming U.S. citizens and getting a nice house (loan was $200,000, now worth about $360,000). Then she decided to have surgery without my approval, and her partner got $8,000 from Klarna, and everything just fell apart.

Can the laws help me, or should I just walk away and leave the house?

I have an existing revocable living trust in the state of Maryland. My son "Steve Smith" is the beneficiary and my daughter "Jane Doe" is the co-trustee. It is titled
John Smith Revocable Trust
John Smith Trustee
Jane Doe Trustee
It is unclear to me if when the grantor of the living trust passes, the title of the trust must be formally changed from the name of the grantor of the trust to the name of the beneficiary and the surviving trustee
Steve Smith Irrevocable Trust
Jane Doe Trustee
If so, must the new title include Irrevocable Trust or can it just be titled Steve Smith Trust?
Thanks for your help in clarifying this

I will become the sole trustee of a spendthrift trust for my brother when the trust grantor passes.

Part of the trust assets are stock shares

When these shares have to be sold to provide yearly distributions for the beneficiary of the trust what will be the cost basis of the shares sold

Hello all. Looking for advice. Let me start by stating the facts.
My father passed away in 2016. My grandma pulled my aunt and I aside and explained that since my dad was gone, she wanted their assets to be split between my aunt and me when they passed (verbal only).
Married in 2017
My grandma passed away in 2019
My grandpa passed away in December 2022
My grandparents did not change their will so it still stated that assets would be split 50/50 between my aunt and my dad
My grandpa's investment accounts and retirement accounts listed my aunt and dad as beneficiaries.
My aunt was the executor of my grandpa's will
The retirement accounts and investment accounts all moves to my aunt's name at the time of my grandpa's death
My aunt and I worked with the financial planner responsible for the accounts to split them 50/50 and put half under my name in February 2023
The accounts have remained in my name only
They have certainly grown since then and I understand that the amount of growth is considered marital assets and I agree it is absolutely fair to split the growth

Now that I am getting divorced, my wife is questioning the validity of my inheritance and demanding half of the full amount if I can't prove that it is an inheritance. I have asked my aunt for a copy of the will which she will send me on the 12th. I have asked the financial planner for any communications and statements that he might have which he will send me tomorrow. I am also speaking with my divorce attorney for his opinion/recommendation on the 8th.

What is the best way to prove it to her and her lawyer and protect my assets?

Thank you for reading.

Husband and I are in our early and mid 60's. We moved to Alabama last year and bought our home outright, which is valued around $300,000. We're both retired, have 401k's around $400,000 combined, 2 paid off vehicles and very small cc debit that we pay off as we charge.

We both have adult children from prior marriages. No children together.

I feel we need to get a trust and he is very nonchalant about it. My concern is one of us passes and are stuck in probate. He doesn't care and says he will just stay in the house if I passed before him. I on the other hand do not want to pay lawyer and court fees because we have no trust if he were to pass before me. Running back and forth to court and trying to handle everything while grieving doesn't sound ideal. Plus my understanding is if he outlived me my kids would receive nothing as it would go to his next of kin.

I would like to have our home secured if one of us need LTC outside the home. I heard a trust is the way to avoid the state coming in and putting a lien on the property.

Can someone help convince my husband we need this? We had a will we bought online and it was never completed. I want a lawyer to handle it so it is done correctly. TIA

Hello,

I am in Texas my mother passed away last month. I know absolutely nothing about the process. We made the will ourselves at the nursing home with a notary.

We don't know how to get it in probate or what to do and I just really want to know what the process is, how to start it and should I be worried about anything in particular?

I live in NC and we just attended a "living trusts and wills" seminar that was basically you never, ever want a will, lets sign you up for a living trust. I found them slick and hard selling. My husband gave them a credit card (save $500 today only) and they will call to set up an appointment. We can cancel before then. We got a trust years ago when we living in VA, but it is currently unfunded. I would prefer talking to a lawyer who will provide more balanced information according to our needs. Besides our house, we don't have that much and we have no children. Have you experienced a seminar like this?

I posted a while back about some issues with inheriting my dads house with my brother. We are in California. My brother is the executor of the estate and there has been a lot of stuff going on that I'm unhappy with without any formal agreement between us. We both currently live at the house. I'm really on the fence about selling it because its our childhood home and its heartbreaking to me.

My brother has been taking at least several hundred dollars a month possibly a thousand or more a month in trust money / money from sales of my dads now shut down business products to "pay his rent" without my approval for the last few years saying that he's paying himself for work / meeting people who want to buy some of my dads products and for doing yard work around the property on top . He doesn't provide statements on any of my dads business stuff being sold and has only provided a few bank statements in the past. This probably takes him at most only a few hours of work a week and my dads business is on the property and its left over inventory left from when he died so there is very little labor involved at this point. I mean I wasn't asking money from the estate for the work i did clearing out my dads second shop location that we moved out of . I do own 50% of the house and of my dads possessions / business. I am almost considering just selling off my half of my business interest / inventory for a discounted price because I don't receive any money from it. My brother chooses to only work a part time job that doesn't pay much so he probably just views it as he deserves to get paid for doing work on the property but there is no transparency in financial documents or agreements . I did tell him a while back he's not supposed to be paying himself money like that and he gave a passive answer but now he's still doing it.

I am already a super busy person with my own business. I tried to talk to him about hiring a landscaper and selling my half of my dads stuff but he's passive / avoidant about everything and nothing is being done in a way that I'm happy about. He was already paid a executor fee beforehand. He also has his male friend living with him at our house and his friend is living here for free now (according to them) when he previously told me he was paying rent which I have been very unhappy about and is another big issue for me. I currently live alone without children.

Ive been talking to some friends who say I should probably just get him removed as executor because of the lack of transparency , control of finances , and letting his buddy live here without paying anything. I spoke to an attorney before who just straight up said he wanted to remove him as executor and force the sale of the house so he can get a "big fat check". I am trying to find a attorney now who can help me remove him as a executor and see if we can resolve these issues before having to sell the house as a last resort. Living in california coastal the attorneys I reached out to in the past didnt seem to want to help me with small things first they all seemed to just want to go for a big payday but i need to get help sorting out some of these things first.

My question is to get him removed as executor how much will this likely cost me ? I understand lawyers got to get paid but for me spending a few thousand vs tens of thousands is a big difference. What should something like this typically cost and how to avoid a big attorney bill for something like this? I dont have much experience hiring attorneys. For me to hire someone I have to feel like they are reasonable and that I can trust them but so far hasn't been easy to find so I kept putting it off the last year. Also how can I legally remove his friend from the property? This person has been leaching off our family for a long time and I'm not ok with it anymore. Thanks

I am confused by this as I have gotten different answers from bank and investment firm and estate attorney.

We currently live in TX. We own a home and other assets are with a large investment company who has the bulk (brokerage/IRA/ROTH) and a national bank with a checking account that averages about 1% of investment net worth. We currently own one vehicle and I am not too concerned about this.

Investment and bank account all have primary (spouse) and contingent beneficiaries.

We have a will not a trust. We do not have children. Contingent beneficiaries for the investment/bank accounts are a mix of nieces/nephews/longtime close friends. We will likely adjust to add some charities to the mix. All we were required to do when adding them was entering full legal name and DOB.

The will currently specifies who should inherit our home and a few personal property bequests (which we will likely disburse sooner particularly if we downsize, etc).

We were told by the estate lawyer this would be fine for us in TX and that we did not need to do anything more about the house. I want to know if this is correct and how onerous will this be for the executor as well as the inheritor/beneficiary. If we do downsize and move, my feeling is that we would rent and/or move to independent and at some point assisted living. I know if my spouse passes before me, I will definitely sell the house and move. Proceeds would go into the investment accounts and we'd adjust the % among the contingent beneficiaries.

But this is my question. How do the contingent beneficiaries get notified after the 2nd spouse passes? We have an executor who will have durable POA. Does that person notify the investment company etc and provide whatever is needed. for their trust department to follow-up with the contingent beneficiaries. Are we supposed to provide detailed contact info of those individuals to the executor and/or the estate attorney? Niece/nephew may have idea they will inherit but are not aware of specifics and do not live nearby but friends or charities have no idea.

I know accounts with beneficiaries do not go through probate so is executor supposed to handle assets that do not go through probate? I just am unclear how we know that the contingent beneficiaries get their funds primarily from the investment company. Assume any debts or bills etc will be paid form the checking account.

As far as the house goes, it there a better way in TX to handle this than to just have the bequest in the will should we still own it when second spouse passes?

A younger friend is the executor and I do not want them to have any hassles.

Appreciate any guidance that can be provide. Thanks.

Location: Florida, but irrelevant

The time some of you have taken to provide detailed answers to posts has really impressed me. I feel like it is more often, than not. I think this is actually one of my favorite subs, just for that reason. I can’t say that Estate Planning is part of my life very often, however, I enjoy learning and the information I’ve gotten from here has
benefited others (and therefore the industry bc they have engaged Estate planning attorneys). I just wanted to say thanks and it’s appreciated!!

My husband of 48 years cosigned a loan for my son-in-law to buy a car for our daughter. Am I responsible for his cosigning for him after my husband passes away? The only reason I ask is because he, my husband, has cancer & congestive heart failure. Our son-in-law has already been one day late twice, and I don’t wanna be held responsible for his irresponsibility.

how does an estate handle it when someone named in the documents simply can't be located?

not someone who's refusing to cooperate. i mean an heir who hasn't been in contact with the family for years and nobody knows where they live

does the executor have to keep searching indefinitely before the estate can move forward?

and what happens with something like a house that needs to be sold while everyone is waiting?

i've seen general explanations about publishing notices and making a reasonable effort to locate people, but i'm more interested in what this looks like in an actual estate

does this usually get resolved fairly quickly, or can one missing beneficiary hold everything up for months?

location: Henderson, Nevada, USA

Location: Illinois

My father was the owner and only shareholder of a small corporation. He has passed and his estate is small enough for small estate affidavit rather than probate. He has a piece of property in the name of the business. Is there a way to sell this property without going through probate? There are 6 of us all in agreement that we will dissolve the business once everything is taken care of.

Oh and he died without a will but has almost no assets so us adult children understand after his debts are paid there’s nothing to fight over.

Interactive brokers is often recommended on here for offshore investing in ETFs like VWRA to avoid US situs tax on death.

If you have an IBKR trading account as a South African citizen (and resident) and you die, your executor must send a Letter of Executorship, Death Certificate and court certified Will to Interactive Brokers to begin probate.

Is a South African will acceptable or is it better to have a valid US will (drafted by a US attorney)?

Must the US will comply with the laws of Delaware or Connecticut?

Colorado. My husband and I are in the process of setting up our 18 yr old only kids SNT and wills. Autism, physical & learning disabilities. They are currently doing post HS transition program and taking 1 comm college class. Not sure of LT independent living. We have co-guardianship. All our family is out of state. Husbands siblings are in late 60’s. I have younger 1/2 bro out of state w/ younger kids. We are thinking best guardians would be local friends with kids similar age who are like family. If we die the transition & ongoing will be a lot. Doctors appts for all their specialists, mental healthy therapy, etc. Can we list in our will an amount to be paid to them either one time or ongoing for the additional load. I’m anticipating we will revise the will as the child becomes more independent.