AI Legalese Decoder: Unraveling Sister Executor Conduct – Is it Normal? How to Handle the Situation?
- August 29, 2023
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
Speed-Dial AI Lawyer (470) 835 3425 FREE
FREE Legal Document translation
Try Free Now: Legalese tool without registration
AI Legalese Decoder: Helping Navigate Executor Responsibilities
Heading: Concerns as an Executor: Seeking Clarity on Inheritance Process and Responsibilities
Introduction:
Being an executor comes with a set of responsibilities, including managing assets, distributing inheritances, and ensuring the wishes of the deceased are carried out. However, when concerns arise regarding the actions (or lack thereof) of a fellow executor, it’s essential to seek clarification on the situation. Here we delve into the current scenario, discuss the potential consequences, and offer insights on how the AI Legalese Decoder can assist in this complex situation.
Main Content:
In the current situation regarding the estate of your late father, it is natural to feel alarmed and confused by the actions, or lack thereof, of your sister, who is also an executor. While it is not uncommon for executors to receive an additional percentage from the estate as compensation for their role, it is crucial to ensure that the process is being managed effectively and in a timely manner. Here, the AI Legalese Decoder can be an invaluable resource in shedding light on the legal obligations and duties that accompany the executor role.
Addressing the Delay:
Considering it has been several months since your father’s passing in April, with no official notification provided by your sister to the corporation where your father owned stocks, it is understandable that you are growing concerned. The AI Legalese Decoder can help you understand the legal requirements for informing relevant parties and guide you on the necessary steps to ensure the estate administration proceeds as smoothly as possible.
Utilizing the AI Legalese Decoder:
One way the AI Legalese Decoder can assist is by providing clarity on your sister’s legal responsibilities as an executor. By inputting relevant information into the AI system, such as the state and country, it can provide you with a detailed breakdown of the required legal procedures and timelines governing executor responsibilities in Virginia, USA. This information will empower you to better understand your sister’s obligations and address any potential concerns.
Understanding the Implications:
Considering your current financial situation, which includes disability and unemployment, the delay in distributing the inherited assets can have severe implications for you. The AI Legalese Decoder can help you comprehend the potential consequences of your sister’s inaction, such as the impacts on your financial stability, your ability to seek legal representation, and the overall progression of the estate administration.
Decision-Making and Communication:
Feeling frustrated by your sister’s lack of responsiveness and explanation is completely understandable. To explore potential solutions, such as taking an inheritance advance or involving a third-party company, the AI Legalese Decoder can guide you through the legal intricacies of these actions, helping you make informed decisions during this complex and emotionally charged process.
Support Networks:
In times of distress and family conflict, seeking professional support is crucial. The AI Legalese Decoder can provide you with referrals to legal aid organizations or pro bono services that may offer free or affordable legal advice. Additionally, it may help facilitate family mediation or communication resources to address the underlying conflicts experienced within your family.
Conclusion:
As an executor, navigating the intricate legal processes associated with estate administration can be challenging and emotionally draining, especially when faced with delays, miscommunication, and family disputes. By utilizing the AI Legalese Decoder, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the legal obligations, potential solutions, and available support resources. Remember, seeking legal advice specific to your circumstances is essential to ensure you make informed decisions regarding your rights and responsibilities as a beneficiary and to help resolve any conflicts that arise.
Speed-Dial AI Lawyer (470) 835 3425 FREE
FREE Legal Document translation
Try Free Now: Legalese tool without registration
AI Legalese Decoder: Revolutionizing the Legal Industry
Introduction:
In recent years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have revolutionized various industries, and the legal sector is no exception. With the emergence of AI Legalese Decoder, lawyers and legal professionals can now streamline their workflow, improve efficiency, and enhance accuracy in understanding complex legal texts. This technology has the potential to reshape the legal industry and facilitate the expeditious delivery of legal services.
Understanding the Situation:
Challenges often arise when dealing with legal documents, contracts, and regulations due to the intricate and convoluted language used in these texts. Attorneys spend countless hours deciphering and interpreting these complex legal jargon to extract relevant information. This can be a daunting task, consuming valuable time and resources. Moreover, misinterpretation of legal language can lead to costly errors or misunderstandings, which can have severe consequences for both lawyers and their clients.
The Role of AI Legalese Decoder:
AI Legalese Decoder is a cutting-edge technology that utilizes natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to decode and translate complex legal texts into simplified, comprehensible language. By doing so, it enables legal practitioners to save time and effort by reducing the hours spent on deciphering intricate legal documents. Additionally, it minimizes the risk of misinterpretation, ensuring that lawyers have a comprehensive understanding of the legal texts at hand.
How AI Legalese Decoder Works:
This groundbreaking technology employs a combination of linguistic analysis, machine learning models, and data mining techniques to decode and translate legal texts accurately. It scans the document and identifies the specific legal language or jargon, breaks it down into simpler terms, and provides meaningful explanations or summaries. Furthermore, AI Legalese Decoder continually updates its database with new legal vocabulary, ensuring accurate translations and keeping up with the ever-evolving legal landscape.
Benefits and Implications:
The adoption of AI Legalese Decoder by legal professionals offers numerous benefits. Firstly, it allows lawyers to efficiently review and comprehend complex legal documents, contracts, or regulations, enabling them to provide timely and accurate legal advice to their clients. Additionally, this technology helps in reducing human error, enhancing transparency, and improving the overall quality of legal services. By streamlining the process of understanding legal texts, it effectively eliminates the barriers imposed by indecipherable legal language.
Conclusion:
With AI Legalese Decoder, the legal profession can embrace a more efficient and accurate approach to handling complex legal texts. By leveraging this technology, lawyers and legal professionals can significantly enhance their productivity, reduce the time spent on deciphering legal jargon, and improve the quality of their services. As AI continues to advance, it is undoubtedly clear that AI Legalese Decoder will play a crucial role in reshaping the legal industry, making it more accessible and user-friendly for both legal practitioners and clients alike.
Speed-Dial AI Lawyer (470) 835 3425 FREE
FREE Legal Document translation
****** just grabbed a
Getting paid for being executor is common and legal. Some wave it, but there is a lot involved. As long as she is following the will, she’s in the clear. Unfortunately, you needs don’t really have to dictate her timeline. I understand you wanting to punish her, but taking as inheritance advance (I didn’t know companies do that) will result if you getting much less in the long run. I think those companies might take as much as 1/3. And I doubt that they can force things to happen much sooner. They will not give you money without significant evidence you are going to be receiving money/things of value.
I helped settle my mother’s estate in WV not VA but the process is similar.
The Will has to be presented to the court, accepted, the executors appointed, etc. That took several weeks since it couldn’t be done until the death certificates were issued.
The state does have a general timeline to follow. It included filing the list of assets (several months), the list of debts (add another few months), having public notices printed in the local newspapers of record in case there were creditors we didn’t know about (add more months), etc. As we found more assets we had to update the court docs.
My mother’s estate was fairly straightforward and it still took over 18 months to get everything through the process. At four months in we were still finding assets and accounts because her finances were a mess. Some of the hospital bills didn’t show up for six months; Mom was in the ICU when she passed.
As an heir the executors should be sending you a copy of everything that gets filed with the court.
Also many people don’t understand that probating an estate is *work*. The executor doesn’t get to rush off and do whatever, he has to follow what’s in the Will (unless it’s physically impossible, like a special bequest for property that the deceased had already sold). They earn that fee.
The only thing that I have learned from spending a lot of time in family court is every time I saw a case involving family estates, the judge always said that nothing good comes from having a family member serve as executor. They said that it almost always makes hard feelings between the family.
Contact the estate lawyer your sister retained for probate. ThatÔÇÖs not your sisterÔÇÖs lawyer: it is the EstateÔÇÖs lawyer. As equal Heir to dads assets, they will sit down with you & answer any questions you have about whatÔÇÖs happening. I would specifically find out how long dadÔÇÖs creditors have to file for payment; what steps your sister has taken & if she is acting in a timely manner; & what to expect from the bigger assets: namely stocks & the home. Your sister cannot legally prolong estate duties and hold onto the home ÔÇ£for awhileÔÇØ just because it suits her personal renovation wants. She is responsible for keeping the bills up to date on the home during the process, as well. If the home needs sorted & inventoried, she needs power & water kept on paid for by the Estate. SheÔÇÖs allowed to pay them from dads accounts or pay them herself & seek re-imbursement before probate is closed. Every single dollar spent or earned (by selling a car, for example) from the estate should be documented and you as Heir have equal rights to the information. SheÔÇÖs not god here, just executor, and the probate judge will not blindly sign off if one of the heirs disagrees with how sheÔÇÖs handled assets. The home will require a professional evaluation of its current value and will need to be sold (at market value not giving a ÔÇ£dealÔÇØ to hurt the estate) unless one of you buys the other 2 out (you can force a sale if you wish). I believe any or all of you can occupy the home rent-free until itÔÇÖs time to sell it or a buy-out happens. Absolutely do not use inheritance advance companies: you hurt yourself greatly doing so. It sounds like you are in more desperate straits than she is, but donÔÇÖt let that sway you to settle for substantially less than you deserve. Get all your questions together then talk to your estate lawyer. He will bill the estate for his time so donÔÇÖt waste it. Its best if everyone knows you arenÔÇÖt passively waiting on sis to be efficient & honest. You are not powerless here. Sorry about your dad, OP.
I am not a lawyer. When my Uncle died (Canada), my mom was executrix. She took her own sweet time, to a point, the other beneficiaries took her to court. Since they got a lot less than my mom or I did, my mom (unknowingly to me) used me as an excuse. Her lawyer said I inherited a huge part of the estate and I was being patient. I was, but because I had no idea if some of the shenanigans that were going on. Like mom getting a convertible Volvo or the cruise around the world she took. All, after she said how poor she was before my Uncle died.
My relatives reached out to me. They told me what was going on. After I joined the lawsuit, it went much faster.
I have been where you are. The lawyers should not take any money until the case/estate is settled. I would advise you to quickly get a lawyer.
The reason your sister does not want you to have a paid way home, is so you will not show up there and see what fuckery she is up to. Get a lawyer today. Have you checked to make sure you need money for a lawyer? Mine was in Canada but I didnÔÇÖt need a single penny.
I wish you the best of luck.
I was told it takes a year for an estate to be finalized. Sounds like OP expected it to happen overnight.
NAL but in a lot of instances yes the executor does receive a fee for doing the role – second if assets were held in single name then yes an estate account needs to be set up and then from there assets distributed. According to the IRS (even if you donÔÇÖt have to pay taxes you still need to file) there is 9 months from date of death to file. It has only been 4 months so technically she has another 5 months before anything needs to be distributed. If she has filed for probate then you can get a lot of information from the probate court.
Edit: Yes what she is doing is legal. So you need to just sit tight and wait for her to settle and close the estate. Not knowing how much money your father had it can take longer than 9 months. I have had some estates that can take over a year until the assets are paid to the beneficiaries.
1. The executor taking a fee is very normal and not illegal. My Dad was the executor of my Uncle (his brothers) estate after he passed, and he took 3%.
2. Unfortunately, even though you need the money now – they dont have to do anything to please you. If you cant be patient, im not sure what to say. They have a duty to act in a timely manner, but what a ÔÇ£timely mannerÔÇØ means is very much up for debate. There is a LOT to do when you are the executor, and sometimes it can take years before the estate can be fully closed.
You are a vet you can get a free lawyer via the local VA  good luck
As someone who deals with estates on a near-daily basis (securities industry), I find your sister’s timeframe to be completely reasonable…so far. Settling estates (especially ones with multiple types of assets) can be a slow, painful process. Also, 5% to each your brother and your sister for executor duties isn’t out of the realm of normal. It is a lot of work that does deserve compensation. And to be honest, most folks don’t have the knowledge base to get these things wrapped up quickly. I could do it in four months, but that’s a tough ask for the Average Joe.
If I were in your shoes, I would be asking a lot more questions and really being an advocate for myself. Your post seems like you have the generalities, but not the specifics. The specifics is where estates lie, so start there.
I don’t like that she says she’s “too busy” to get to the accounting process. Who requested the accounting? The court or you? Do you know if she even has the Letters Testamentary yet? That document will likely be the one that drives whether she has the legal ability to redeem the shares of stock (unless the account(s) is/are TOD), and also to sell the home. Have you asked what she plans on doing with the house? Do you know what your brother is doing for his part as executor? In larger estates, it’s not uncommon for executors to divide and conquer, so to speak, but I would definitely want to know what his role specifically is.
I know you’re in a tough spot, but please try to avoid giving up your portion of your inheritance to an advancement company. You will get pennies on the dollar for it. I’m hoping this money is a life-changing gift for you, so please, please try to find another option. Contact the VA or other aid organizations. But I would caution you to keep the news of your possible windfall close to your chest. People are shitty and I’m sure there are some folks out there who would prey on you.
I’m sorry you’re going through such a tough time, friend. I’ve seen estates bring families together, and also tear them completely apart. Take care of yourself, one day at a time.
just tell her you are going to sue her. that should get the wheels moving.
They’re can be stipulations put into a will or trust allowing for executors to recieve either a different percentage of the assets or some level of compensation for their services. My family is dealing with this right now on my great grandmothers will since one of my grandfather’s brothers had stipulations put in place for additional compensation for money he put up for her hospice care when she was in the final stages in addition to compensating on of the other brothers for acting as executor. Perfectly legal and honestly good practice so that the executors don’t feel like they are getting the short end of the stick in some way.
It is normal for her to get 10% but it is not normal to delay the processing. You can petition the court and notify them she is not doing her due diligence. She has to do things in a timely manner or the courts can remove her. She has to follow the will exactly as well.
Does the state your father lived have probate? In some states there needs to be time between death and liquidation of real property encase any liens show up? Every state is different.
In Virginia if it’s not specified in the will the executor fee can be set at no more than 5%. That’s 5% total, not 5% per executor. And even then a judge would have to order it.
I suspect your brother and sister do not know this and they don’t realize that when they go to settle the estate the judge is not going to allow them to take 5% each. He may not allow them to take anything, or he may set it at a lower percentage.
I know you say you don’t have any money now, but you should still reach out to an attorney. They may be willing to do it on contingency, especially since it sounds like you’re part of the settlement is going to be in the tens of thousands. In addition, if the attorney finds any irregularities then his fees will likely be ordered to be paid out of the estate, so technically you would only pay 1/3 and your brother and sister would pay the other two thirds.
I would strongly encourage reaching out to an attorney. Your brother and sister maybe taking advances of their own and they may end up taking out more than their share. If that happens the only way to get it back from them is to sue, so you may as well have an attorney lined up. You mention you’re a vet with PTSD so you could maybe reach out to veterans Services and see if they could point you towards someone.
As far as the house, if she wants to be living in it “for a while” she needs to be paying you and your brother a fair market rent. If she’s already moved in, she would owe back rent. That’s something else an attorney could help you with. It honestly sounds like she’s trying to drag it out so she can have free housing for a while. There’s also a possibility that once you get an attorney involved, your brother will realize that he is also legally liable for what she does as executor and fall in line. In addition, since your father did not name an executor, you could make a motion to have your sister removed as executor if she’s neglecting her duties.
I know you’re thinking you can’t afford an attorney but you need to figure out how to get one somehow.
They need to know that they will pay federal and state income taxes as a self-paid employee on that extra amount as executor. I was executor to my grandmothers will and found that out the first tax time. I would have been better off taking the extra amount.
Oh, one more thing. You, your sister, and your brother should not be spending your personal money on things like bills for the house and the cost to clean it. That money should be reimbursed from the estate as soon as there is cash in that account. Whatever life insurance policy you got was not part of the estate and you should have been able to keep that full amount. If you saved the receipt you should submit it to your sister for payment immediately. I would also demand they reimburse your travel expenses. Again, those were expenses used to settle the estate and should not be coming from your personal funds.
If there is not currently an estate checking account with money in it, you may have to wait. But you still deserve that money in the end, over and above your share of the inheritance.
In some states I believe that the executor has an obligation to report (on paper) every 6 months or so. NAL
I do hope the house has been appraised, as that needs to happen quickly. The stock brokerage needed to be informed also, as funds may be handled differently and a value needs to be set at date of death, as capital gains can be affected. It took quite a while for these things to actually happen for me, but companies need to be notified. Taxes on sale of house and stocks can change 1 year after death due to the difference between short and long term. It’s entirely possible she’s overwhelmed and dealing with executive function failure, handling it all kicked my adhd into overdrive. It’s all a massive headache during a time of grief and some payment is usual, the delay in notifications is not usual. I found a qhick consultant with an estate attorney incredibly helpful, and i used them for some of the filing while handing some things myself. They provided me with a list of steps that legally need to happen along with a timeline. My cost for everything she did was 1200 a few years ago. Advise your sister that expenses have to be recorded and provided to all possible heirs, your neither included. A full accounting must be provided. There are quite a few things that must be done within the first year. Taxes for your father and his estate will need to be done also, my parents cpa was helpful for different items. A real estate agent might also be consulted as they also have a different skill set and knowledge of specific items the others might not know.
[deleted]
I’m an attorney, but not your attorney, this is not legal advice, etc.
If the Will doesn’t direct your sister as Executor to sell the house and add the proceeds to the residuary (the three shares), then you already own a one-third interest in the house, as of the date that the court accepted/recorded the Will for probate. So, unless your sister as Executor needs to “divest” your interest (sell the house as Executor) to pay debts of the estate, then the three of you are already co-owners, and this is just a co-ownership problem, not anything to do with the estate administration. You could tell your siblings that you will hire an attorney to file a partition suit (forced sale of the house) unless they list it on the market with you voluntarily. (Separately, though, you [might check with DVS](https://www.dvs.virginia.gov/dvs/locations) to see if your inheritance is going to affect your disability benefits.)
That said, Virginia law requires that the proceeds from the sale of a decedent’s real estate interest be made available to creditors for a year following death. So, even if you got the house sold, you would either have to escrow the proceeds with the closing company until April, or pay the title insurance company an “extra hazardous risk premium” (about 1%) to release the proceeds early.
It sounds like the only *probate* asset might be the shares of stock, but I would say that the registrars are notoriously bad – it is probably the worst probate administration experience among all financial institutions, and that’s saying something. They are almost the only ones who tend to require medallion signature guarantees, which are an incredible pain to get, so your sister might be misspeaking when she says that it needs a notary.
Notwithstanding how difficult it is or is not to get forms filed, five months is too early for an Executor to be thinking about distributing the “residuary” of an estate (your thirds). An Executor is personally liable for distribution if it turns out that there were debts, and she did not go through a “Debts and Demands” hearing process to get an “Order of Distribution” from the court to bar unknown/unmade creditor claims. A lot of jurisdictions are now requiring that a year have passed after death before a hearing can be requested.
The Inventory (list of probate assets) isn’t due with the court until four months after your sister’s qualification appointment, and that is the *starting point* for reporting to the court – so, as you can imagine, it is perfectly reasonable in the eyes of the court for your sister to take more than five months to gather assets and figure out when she wants to distribute. I do not see how you would have a cause of action just because you need the money now.
TL;DR: you have no cause of action by virtue of five months having passed since your father’s death; but if you already own a third of the house, then you can assert some rights as a co-owner that are separate from probate issues.
A fee based on a percentage of the estate seems sketchy IMO and probably not ethical in a fiduciary role. Paying her for her time at a reasonable hourly rate is more common in my experience. If she lives in the house, she should buy it from the estate outright or pay the estate a fair market rent which you would get 1/3 of. Closing an estate is not that hard if the assets are marketable.
My sister took everything, including the home right out from under my fathers feet. Where I am located, there is a one year time frame to settle the estate. Be sure to verify the time frames in your area as you will not be able to contest it. My sister may have everything, but the only family she has left until she dies is her son.
I was executor and did not take a cut at all. I felt that although it may have been some work to get it all settled with my 4 sibs, it just did not seem right. Some are just plain greedy!
OP I work for an estates department in Canada and if there are no plan beneficiaries as you mention in a different comment, even if your sister can liquidate the investments to cash the corporation wonÔÇÖt allow her to disburse the funds without having probate first. That is the case for the bank I work at.
I am almost at the completion of my executor role. It was hundreds, if not thousands of hours of work. I turned down a fee, but the lawyers greatly encourage it due to the amount of work. Unless you’ve done it, you have no idea how much work it is, especially if it’s a larger estate. That said, I kept an excel spreadsheet of expenses from each of us, as well as money from sold items. Expenses paid should be discussed with the executor prior to spending though.
Yeah she’s breaking some rules here and you need to hire a lawyer. Some will take the work now and let you pay them from the inheritance so it might not be as hard to find one as you think.
My Dad died about the same time, so we are in the same process. IANAL and each state has different probate laws, so I advise you to contact a probate lawyer instead of Reddit. That said, I have acted as executor for a couple of estates now, so here is my experience.
1. First, the will must be entered in to probate and the court must produce a document identifying your sister and brother as executors. This letter will have an embossed stamp from the probate court and a judge’s signature.
2. Second, you will need certified copies of your father’s death certificate.
3. Then you have to run a notice in the paper for 3 weeks naming the executors and asking any of your father’s creditors to come forward. Any debts are paid first from the estate. This includes funeral expenses.
4. Then an inventory of the estate assets is made, and it is determined whether any inheritance tax is due.
5. Any stock or bank accounts that were joint just become the property of the remaining owner. Any stock or bank accounts that have a listed beneficiary are simply transferred to the beneficiary as owner. This includes Annuities, IRAs and 401K plans. If your father was taking a RMD, the whole years worth must be withdrawn. Same thing for a house; either it will now be owned by whoever was listed as “joint tenancy”, or become part of the estate.
6. SS must be notified. Payments will stop, any payments made since your father’s death clawed back, and a death benefit will be paid. Ditto the VA, and the DMV.
7. To handle any stock or bank account that were neither joint or had beneficiaries, they must be moved to a new account owned by the estate, then included in the inventory.
8. After all the bills are paid, a last tax return for your father must be submitted.
9. Accountants, executors, and lawyers are paid. It is common for the will to state that the executors may be paid. (10% is pretty in line).
10. Then the estate is distributed.
11. Then a piece of paper is issued by the probate court declaring the estate is closed, the executors are relieved of duty (and liability usually).
Now, for your purposes, please note two things:
1. If your father’s will named two executors, BOTH must sign all these papers.
2. Y’all need to decide if you are going to transfer stuff (esp stocks) “in kind” or if you are going to sell them and cash out. There are tax implications, so get some professional advice from someone who knows your particular finances.
I’ve probably forgotten something. But, yes, the process takes forever, and if you have to sell a house, it will take even longer, because you have to empty the house and get it ready to sell.
After looking some things up on the web and re-reading your post, I just want to be sure that you understand there is no way the estate could have been settled by now. The minimum time would be six months. That is the bare minimum with little to not problems and everyone agreeing on things. So if he died 8 April, 8 October would be the VERY VERY soonest. Do not expect it then. That is just for reference. It could take a year or more to settle this. If you contact someone to buy you out, you will get less than you deserve and they likely would not be able to get anything settled sooner. Certainly nothing is going to get it settled before October. I am not sure what you mean by not contacting the corporation your father owned stock in. There is no need to contact the company that he owns stock in unless it is maybe a private company and privately issued stock? If he had a brokerage account, that is who would handle the sale/division of the stock he owned. If there’s a house, you would have to list it, find a buyer, close. That’s not a simple feat. From what you have said, there is nothing shady going on. At least, you have not named anything that is illegal, iffy, or questionable. Even the fees while at the upper end seem to be perfectly legal. That is what VA allows. Just hang in there. I get that you are not in a good place financially, but you will be better off waiting this out, you will end up with more that way. That’s the only thing that is certain in this.
I actual took care of everything for my father-in-lawÔÇÖs estate (my wife was the executor – but did not have the time). I busted my ass to get things done as quickly as possible but his estate (which, while sizable, was not complex) still took 14 months to close down. He too died in April of that year. That being said, my wife was still able to make disbursements to her and her brother throughout the process.
IÔÇÖm wondering if her dragging her heels is more emotional/psychological than anything else. Everybody takes loss differently.
You have every right to ask her for everything to do with the estate. As executor of the estate, she is required to do so. And 10% is way too much. She is ripping the estate off, is what it sounds like to me.
I will ask them. I spent about $1600 to get here and was going to sleep in my car to get back.. thank you.
Thank you, that helps. I am inclined to wash my hands of it, and let the advance company deal with it, taking a lesser amount of inheritance so I donÔÇÖt ever have to deal with my siblings again.
Executrix is the word you are looking for.