BF2S Forums I need a help with a sentence from a will

were there any other major debts?  Home equity loan? tax issues?  I'm not trying to defend anyone but I do know there can be all kinds of bullshit.  It's too bad your uncle was, at the very least, not transparent during the process.

So I just got the will in the post now, and read through the whole thing fairly quickly. I also received the sale information from my pop's house.

In the will it says this:

6. MY EXECUTOR AND MY TRUSTEE _{(my uncle's name)} shall divide my residuary estate and the income derived therefrom into ONE HUNDRED (100) equal parts and hold those parts UPON TRUST :-

(a) to pay SEVENTY FIVE (75) of those parts to my son _{(my uncle's name)} if he survives me PROVIDED that if he predeceases me and dies leaving a child or children him surviving who surviving me and who have attained or lived to attain the age of TWENTY FIVE (25) years then that child of those children shall take and if more than one equally between them the share of my residuary estate and the income derived therefrom which his her or their father would have taken had he lived to attain a vested interest therein;

(b) to pay TWENTY FIVE (25) of those parts to such of my daughter-in-law _{(my mum's name)} and my grandsons _{(mine and my brother's names)} as survive me and have attained or lived to attain the age of TWENTY FIVE (25) years and if more than one as tenants in common in equal shares.

The house sold for $495,000

We received around $54,000 to divide equally between my mother, brother and I.

Now that I have it in writing I need to seek legal advice.

The hard part is finding out the total amount my uncle received minus real estate / legal fees. But if I can somehow get that info I think I have enough to make a case.

Luckily I have the name of the real estate who handed the sale of the house. If I can talk to them but not alert my uncle it will hopefully give me a better picture.

depends on the kind of guy your uncle is.  some people understand that trust and verification are not the same thing, some don't.  or he just plain screwed you guys out of $40-60k.  have you discussed this with your siblings?

Um, it cna be read in different ways.

None of the executors or trustees will be liable for dishonesty by the other executors or trustees.
None of the executors or trustees will be liable for deliberate actions or deliberate failures to act by the other executors or trustees.
None of the executors or trustees will be required to take legal action against any of the other executors or trustees for any reason.

You can take action against whoever you like if they themselves were dishonest or themselves acted or failed to act and breached the trust, you can't sue any of them for failing to prevent one of the others doing or not doing something.

If your uncle is the sole trustee its all irrelevant.

Further simplified: if your uncle was dishonest, or deliberately acted against the estate's interest, any co-trustee can sue him.

They can, but you can't sue them for not doing so, if 'they' even exist.

If he did not do as instructed by the will then I think its clear he acted dishonestly, the paragraph you quoted only really applies to other executors, if he was the sole executor then I think its irrelevant.

I think too much time has passed.

Don't go to law expecting to win simply because you're right.

Jaekus wrote:

According to the lawyer I spoke with the other day he said:

The starting point is 1. Are you a beneficiary? 2. If yes, as a beneficiary you have a right I think in all states to require the Executors and Trustees to explain what assets have come through their hands, what expenses they have incurred and where the money has gone, in order to fulfil the terms of the will. So we need to see the will first and the list of assets at the time the deceased died.

I've just scanned and emailed him the will. A little anxious to hear what he has to say.

Hope it turns out well for you.

PS: all that was worded terribly

My cousin told me yesterday he also had my pop's second wife's children written out of the will (my pop was married three times, iirc all three wives died of cancer) and tried to have the will of her recently deceased mother (my uncle's ex wife) put over to him as she had not changed it till recently since 1968.

At the moment none of this is proven and I'm sure she (my cousin) is telling me a biased account. I figure that if my uncle has nothing to hide then he won't mind showing the records of how the estate was handled. If he takes offence then so be it. If of course he didn't handle it correctly... he will hear further from my lawyer - who I have found out is actually the director of the law firm he works at... could be somewhat intimidating.

Anyway, time will tell.

I know, I don't expect it to be all cut and dried, hence the anxiety.

I just want the truth.

Been quite a while. I recently contacted the law firm. They had forgotten and passed me onto a firm that is in the same state as the estate (Western Australia).

In a nutshell, I have to get this resolved this year, as typically there's a 6 year limitation to contest mishandling of probate. This will involve legal costs and is no guarantee I will be successful, or even any proof yet my uncle actually did anything wrong other than some logical speculation that it is quite possible he did.

The law firm can't do much without getting a report of reconciliation of the estate. They want between $500 - $1,500 to do this by liaising with the firm that handled the estate in 2007. I currently can't afford this and have decided to send another letter to my uncle with more direct yet polite language to basically say he has a legal obligation to release a report of his handling of the estate and I have contacted a law firm regarding this. Hopefully he can read between the lines here...

Just thinking about this is making me feel anxious. I'm probably blowing it out of proportion in my head but it still doesn't stop me feeling this way.

Anyone have a similar experience?

True. It's already looking quite expensive from the get go. I think I will try to handle this by myself for as long as I can and see what eventuates. The more I look into this (anecdotal family evidence and accounts) the more it looks like my uncle did indeed knowingly mishandle the estate.