End of Life Legal Matters Questions

1. What can I do if co executors will not meet with me?

   Most probates, even if there is considerable property to be administered, are closed within a year or so. So it's rather mysterious how and why your situation has dragged on for four long years. One would expect that beneficiaries and creditors would be nipping at your heels by now to nudge the probate process along...
   1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

2. When can I expect payment from my father's estate?

   The law does not impose a specific deadline on executors, but generally requires them to administer a will and distribute the property it covers "within a reasonable time." What's considered "reasonable" depends on how much property is involved, how complex the plans for leaving it -- and in this case...
   1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

3. How do I distribute our parents things equitably among siblings?

   You are right to feel a bit adrift in dividing the estate, since one sibling's treasure may be another sibling's trash.The value of the estate is what must be divided, but there are different ways to value and divide each asset. Clearly, the “value” of a sentimental object is determined subjectivelyvely...
   1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

4. Is Embalming Necessary?

   Rarely. There's a popular misconception that embalming, in which a body is treated to slow its disintegration, is always required by law after death. In fact, no state requires routine embalming and some don't require it at all. Embalming is legally required only in special circumstances, such as:
   FAQ 1 Expert Answer

5. Can a probate ruling be appealed?

   While your question is tough to answer without seeing the actual order you want to contest, the short answer is that most probate rulings can be appealed. To find out the exact wording of the law in your state, do a search for "probate court" and also type in the name of the county in which the order was issued...
   1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

6. Do I need a co executor's signature on tax documents to file them for the estate?

   Your authority under the Durable Power of Attorney ended at your father's death. Once you and your sister were appointed by the court as co-executors, the authority and responsibility to settle your father's affairs became a joint responsibility. Both of your signatures are required on the income tax return...
   1 Expert Answer

7. How to divide personal items and estate when there is no will?

   Unfortunately, when someone dies without a will, or "intestate," a surviving family member cannot simply declare himself or herself an executor and divvy up the property. A probate court has to appoint a person to do the job. While this may seem like an unnecessary bunch of legal gobbledegook, you can...
   1 Expert Answer

8. How can I obtain my deceased mother's medical records?

   You ask about getting your deceased mother's medical records. I am not clear about why you want them, but my experience is that most often, people want a deceased person's medical records because they suspect that something was not right about the care the deceased received. If that is the case, be prepared to pay a fee for the records...
   1 Expert Answer

9. What steps do I need to take to get the mediation process started?

   It sounds as if your own gut is already suggesting a solution: Try calling in another person to help break the logjam between you and your brother—and mediation is often ideal for this. In mediation, an impartial person, or a panel of them, will work with people having a dispute to work out a suitabable solution...
   1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer

10. Who has the legal rights to cremated remains in Arizona?

    This is a difficult situation. As his children, it's understandable that you would want your father's cremated body near you.
    1 Expert Answer

11. Since my parents own property in several states, how will their estate be administered?

    Your parents' primary residence is the one they list on their tax returns, and the one in which they pay state income tax. That state’s laws will govern their estate. If they haven’t already done so, your parents need to establish a revocable living trust and place all the property they own into tha that trust...
    1 Expert Answer

12. How soon after my parent's death do I need to begin administering will, and what's involved?

    Slow down and take some time for yourself. Grief is a very individual process, so take the time you need to deal with your own emotions. There is no rush to deal with your mother's estate. Ideally, you'll know who your mother's attorney is. That person will have a copy of her will and estate documents...
    1 Expert Answer, 2 Community Answers

13. What if we suspect a trustee is mismanaging a trust?

    You are living proof of a difficult truth: Money and aging and the fear of death can disrupt the peace in families that seemed to operate as lovingly as the Waltons -- and can quickly bring out the worst in a family with even the slightest dysfunctional tendencies...
    1 Expert Answer

14. Do executors have to give out copies of wills?

    Once a person dies, many executors do give out a copy of the will to all the beneficiaries named to take property in it. And some take pains to gather the beneficiaries together in a room and perform an oral reading of it. But there is no legal requirement to do either of these things.
    1 Expert Answer

15. How to create a non-contestable will?

    It sounds as if you've done a good job in getting your mother's affairs in order.Wills are actually quite difficult to contest. Your mother's husband would have to prove either that your mother did not have the capacity to make a will because she was not mentally competent to do so, or that she was put...
    1 Expert Answer

16. What will happen to my brother's share of inheritance if he cannot be found?

    Most probate courts operate under the rule that the executor, or person who is named in the will to round up and distribute the property as it directs, must make a "reasonable" efforts to locate all beneficiaries "within a reasonable time."If the court is satisfied that your brother cannot be found,...
    1 Expert Answer

17. Did the executor of my grandmother's estate do something wrong by not giving me a piece of property willed to my dad and I after my father died?

    What your father and the executor, called a trustee if administering a trust rather than a will, should or should not have done is dictated by the terms of the trust your grandmother established. If the executor was supposed to set up a trust and did not, or was supposed to distribute only a limited...
    1 Expert Answer

18. How do you divide estate property equally between siblings?

    Whatever you and your siblings decide to do, you must all be guided first and foremost by what the will stated -- or if there was no will, by the controlling state law, called the law of intestate succession. If the will or the law requires that the estate is to be divided equally, you must do that...
    1 Expert Answer, 4 Community Answers

19. How does an executor get hep paying for bills after death?

    A short certificate is usually the local probate court's certification that an estate proceeding is on record, and most courts will issue them only after the probate is complete, so the paperwork you were issued here is a little confusing. First, the easier news: As executor, you should not be legally...
    1 Expert Answer

20. If not named specifically in a will, can children of the deceased protest for inheritance?

    Assuming your mother's husband is the biological or adoptive father of all five children, it depends on what his will says.If it specifies that he intended to leave nothing to the other children, and give all he had to his youngest daughter, then that's what the law requires...
    1 Expert Answer, 1 Community Answer