Inheritance Concerns: Mother will not release information

T

ThBeNdS

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My wife and her brother were suppose to recieve an inheritance well over $100,000 dollars when her grandmother past away. She was told this numerious times from her grandfather who past away years earlier. It was openly talked about and their mother never disputed it. Then when her grandmother past away this December 10th it was made known to her weeks later that they would only recieve $30,000. After the grandfather passed the children had the will changed somehow.

Now here is the current situation. The money is split among a few different banks and things and her mother has been saying for weeks, now months that she will recieve the money next week... and then when the next week comes she says it will be the next week or two. So my first question we have is:

Is there any reason it would take so long to receieve your inheritance? It's Feb 17 and she died Dec. 10.

Also her mother refuses to give her the lawyer's name or number. Is that legal? I was told if she is in the will she has a legal right to see the document. Could there be a reason for her hiding the lawyer's name?

The family has already shown how they work things behind the scenes. We are concerned there is something we are not seeing or that there is something we need to be doing that we are not.

One last question: Is there a time limit to claim your inheritance? It's almost been 90 days. That is the only thing we could come up with. Maybe she is stalling for some reason.

Thanks to all for reading this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Is this a US based query? If so note that Askaboutmoney is an Irish orientated personal finance and related issues discussion forum and people may not have the knowledge/expertise to comment on matters that relate to US (e.g. inheritance) law.
 
Yes it is a US question. However if anyone has any idea on this I would appreciate it. Who better to ask then an Irishman.

If anyone knows of a similiar forum for the US I would appreciate that information too.

Thanks.

I am Irish at least. ;) Kennedy, McClendon. Conners... just a few of my relatives.
 
Did the will go to whatever the US equivalent of probate/administration in Ireland? Who was the executor? If the bequests were detailed in the will then they should have been disbursed. Perhaps this was all talk all along and these were not specified in any will drawn up? Have you sought your own legal advice on the matter? Unless there is an attempt to defraud legal benficiaries of the estate/will then this will presumably be a civil rather than criminal legal matter.
 
It did go through probate. I beleive one of her uncles was the executor. I know people were specified in the will because her mother would not give up 30,000 to her daughter and her son if she did not have to. That is the problem. We are afraid she might be trying to pull something on us.

So if it's a civil case you think we should just contact a lawyer and he would know how to get a copy of the will?

Is there no way legally that we can request one from a court or judge?

Thanks
 
Irish rules on the administration of estates could be very different to the US, but there are probably similarities.

In Ireland, a will is a document of public record only when it is admitted to probate. At that stage, it can be inspected by any member of the public at a court office known as the Probate Office. This is in effect a branch of the High Court, but is more like a government office. You don’t need a lawyer to do this, there is no court or judge involved.

Until the will is admitted to probate, the only people entitled to see it, or even to know whether or not it exists, are the executors. They are perfectly entitled to tell the beneficiaries absolutely nothing about the will, including the lawyer’s details. It will be of no benefit to you to contact the lawyers who are administering the estate, as they act for the executors and cannot by law tell you anything.

In relation to the length of time involved, two months is not at all unusual. In Ireland it is possible to wait six months or a lot more before receiving anything from an estate. It depends on how many assets a person owned, how complicated the estate is, the lawyers, and the executors etc. In your case, as the money is divided between several accounts, two months is not long at all for the banks to sort it out. It is possible in Ireland to apply to court to force executors to administer an estate if they take a ridiculously long time, but realistically that could mean years of waiting first.

As far as the amount of money involved goes, it is not at all unusual for people to believe they are being left far more than they are. It is common for people’s assets to go down in value between the time they make a will and tell people about it, and their death. It does not necessarily mean the will was changed. If the will was changed, the only person who could have done that was your grandmother, not the children. If you have evidence that she was taken advantage of by her children and persuaded to change her will to benefit them, you could take a civil action in relation to that to have the will set aside, but you would need legal advice in relation to that.

In Ireland, you do not have to claim an inheritance. It is paid out to you without your involvement. However, there would be a time limit within which to make a claim if you feel that there has been some kind of fraud. This limit would run from the date of the Grant of Probate of the will, as it is only then that you can know what you are in fact entitled to. Again, take legal advice on this, but the best way to resolve these disputes is to keep things as civil as possible. When these disputes end in court, it is very messy, time-consuming and costly. Avoid if at all possible!

Sorry for the long post…
 
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