I can’t tell you how many calls our probate litigation law firm West Palm Beach gets from estate beneficiaries who are upset. They complain that they don’t know what’s going on in the Palm Beach estate. Some heirs of Boca Raton estates want to know what their rights are. What Palm Beach probate rights does an estate beneficiary have if the executor is doing nothing? What can a probate beneficiary Palm Beach Gardens do if the executor of the will won’t give you information?
Is the executor working in secret? a look at Palm Beach probate when the executor of the Florida will is not cooperating
- What can an estate beneficiary do if the executor won’t tell you anything?
- Well, first off, know that in Palm Beach probate, the executor of the will is referred to as the Personal Representative of the Estate or the Probate
- The “PR”, short for Personal Representative, is a fiduciary under Florida probate law
- That means that the personal representative Boca Raton owes fiduciary duties to you !……of loyalty, fair dealing, disclosure of information
- In short, the personal representative can’t operate the estate in secret and can’t hide the ball.
Why won’t the executor tell me what he did with the estate assets?
- That means that if the executor sold some real estate in the Palm Beach probate, he or she should give a copy of the HUD-1 to you
- The Palm Beach personal representative should tell you how much the real estate sold for, who bought it, and for how much.
- The executor or PR Palm Beach should tell you where an estate bank account was opened and how much is in it
- Want statements for the bank accounts? That’s not a lot to ask for.
I want to have the personal representative or executor of the will removed !
- If information about estate assets or estate matters is not forthcoming, that personal representative can be removed and even fined or ordered to pay probate attorneys fees or put money back into the Palm Beach probate if mone ways used or taken out of the estate.
- But be ready: a removal action in a probate is a full blown trial. To remove the personal representative of a Lake Worth estate, you need to prove — at trial — that the PR is unfit under the Florida Probate Code or that he or she breached their fiduciary duties.
- That means your estate litigator Delray Beach needs evidence ! Testimony, eye witness accounts, credible fact witnesses, documents
Is there a reasonable explanation for what the executor did?
- So, you are probably upset about things like a safe deposit box or a bank account orestate real estate, right?
- You want to know where all the probate assets are and where the estate money is, right ?
- And your brother, sister, stepmother, fill-in-the-blank relative who you don’t get along with won’t return your phone calls, correct?
- Well, consider this: there may, maybe, might –I’m not saying there IS– but there might be a reasonable explanation
- Maybe that safe deposit box doesn’t “go” to the estate but maybe it was a survivor account or safe deposit box and it is inherited by the heir who happens to be the personal representative. It’s his property.
- That joint account at the brokerage house with $1 Million in stock and cash? If it’s a true joint account and not an Estate Account, or a Florida Convenience Account, it is inherited by the person who is the joint tenant –the survivor. If that happens to be the person who is running the estate, so what?
- The only way you win is if you can prove undue influence or lack of mental capacity: for a will, a trust, bank account, beneficiary designation, change of beneficiary, joint account…….
- Think that the executor is stealing property by putting the house in his or her name? Well, look closely and have your probate litigation attorney review the deeds. Maybe the personal representative of the estate is also the trustee of your late father’s Florida revocable living trust. Aren’t trustees supposed to marshall or gather the trust assets and secure them and safeguard them? That means placing assets in the name of the trust, and…. guess what?………….the trustee’s name will appear on the title “As Trustee”……. if there is no “As Trustee” or no referance to the revocable trust on the deed, then you have an issue: why did the personal representative take the real estate?
- Was she entitled to get the real estate under the will or trust?
- Bad practices should not be tolerated.
- Taking estate money will not be tolerated by probate courts.
- Running the estate in secret won’t go on if you speak up.
- Larceny and conversion should be addressed and not permitted to go on.
- Fraud? Probate courts can’t stand a fiduciary who lies, cheats or steals.
- But understand that sometimes, sometimes, things may not be what they appear to be. They may not be as bad as you think. There might, just might, be a reasonable explanation for someone inheriting millions and millions of dollars from a Palm Beach probate when you get less.