$10 Million PA Karoly Estate finally settling down after probate litigation and “forged wills”

…and you think Palm Beach probate litigation is a handful?  Consider this Pennsylvania estate and the, originally believed-to-be $40 Million at stake:

Estate Had Millions, Business Interests, Professional Practices

• In a tragic case where two highly successful, and very rich, professionals died in a plane crash
• The Estates of Peter Karoly and his wife are worth approximately $10 Million, not the $40 Million originally believed to be the value of the estates
• The Estates, it was revealed through probate filings, included real estate, cash, interests in small businesses and professional practices

Probate Litigation: forged wills?

• While most Palm Beach probates should last less than one year, this PA estate included a 7 year probate litigation battle.
• But every Boca Raton estate lawyer knows that your Palm Beach probate will take more than a year if you have to file a US Estate Tax return or if there is pending or complex probate lawsuits
• Unexpected deaths in 2007 caused a number of lawyers to be involved
• Heirs at law may not be questioning the fees of the trial litigation attorneys and perhaps the probate lawyers
• “Staggering” administrative and legal expenses plagued the estate and the probate litigation process, according to media outlets
• “Bitter” familiy feud over their wealth, estate and probate assets
• Sisters of one of the deceased persons accused a brother of forging the 2006 wills that were submitted to probate
• In Florida, many heirs who get cut out of an inheritance or simply dis-inherited, claim the will is a forgery.   This case had similar allegations of a forged will
• How do you know if a will is a forgery? is one question many heirs and many beneficiaries under a will may ask.  Probate litigators West Palm Beach know that the question is very fact-based and only answered after much probate discovery.
• This PA estate case is a probate litigation example of how complex the probate process can be, or, perhaps, how nasty it can get if there are millions of dollars at stake.

To learn more, check out this link which reveals details of the probate and the millions of dollars at stake: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-peter-karoly-will-accounting-20141226-story.html