First of all, the situation: My grandpa passed away last week. He had a Revocable Living Trust with accompanying Pour Over Wills established with his wife who passed away 16 years ago. The trust divides up property and financials between his three kids and her two kids - they never had children together. The trust names two executors, one from his children and one from her children. There is either a will or the original trust kept in a safety deposit box, but the executor on the wife's side refuses to allow access to it and will not allow us to look at the copies of the trust that she has. So we can only go on our copies of the declaration of trust put together in 1994 along with a handwritten and signed will from my grandpa in 2002. In both of our documents all items in the house are clearly labeled as to who they go to and a clause in the trust leaves the house and property to the wife's children along with anything in the house not on the itemized list. However, the executor on the wife's side is claiming that the handwritten will is not a binding legal agreement and that everything in the house must be sold and divided amongst the five children. She is threatening legal action because the executor on the husbands side used funds from a joint bank account to pay for funeral costs without checking with her first. The executor on the wife's side is also demanding that all financials, even stock accounts deeded to individual children, be put into a communal fund that is divided five ways. She is demanding that the locks be changed on the house and that no one be allowed into the house until everyone can go through the items together so she can be sure we aren't removing anything not on the list. The executor on the husband's side is open to having a neutral third party divide up the property and execute the trust, but the executor on the wife's side is not in agreement on this and says that if we try to bring in a third party she will assume they are on our side and will hire a lawyer.
So I have a few questions pertaining to this issue:
1) Is there a way to gain access to the safety deposit box to view the original or gain copies of the papers that the wife's executor claims to have? The safety deposit box is only in the name of the grandpa with no co-names.
2) Is there a way to get a neutral third party assigned to help, either through the legal system or through some form of estate planning group?
3) If items are clearly left to specific named individuals in the handwritten will that is signed and added to the trust can they be legally removed from the property or do they have to remain until a legal dividing of property can take place?
4) If there is no other recourse, should this matter be turned over to probate court? If this were to happen what would be the likely outcome for personal property for sentimental reasons? My mother wants the family photographs and a few sentimental items she bought for my grandpa, but she has been threatened with being sued if she removes them from the property by the wife's executor.
5) The wife's executor is claiming she cannot work with us, even though we have asked to sit down and go through the house together. She is threatening a restraining order and a freezing of assets, is this possible if there were stocks specifically deeded to individual family members?
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. This is a truly confusing issue and time for us. We haven't even had the funeral yet and we currently don't have the money to hire a lawyer of our own, while the wife's executor has plenty of funds to hire a lawyer and keep this in court for years.
So I have a few questions pertaining to this issue:
1) Is there a way to gain access to the safety deposit box to view the original or gain copies of the papers that the wife's executor claims to have? The safety deposit box is only in the name of the grandpa with no co-names.
2) Is there a way to get a neutral third party assigned to help, either through the legal system or through some form of estate planning group?
3) If items are clearly left to specific named individuals in the handwritten will that is signed and added to the trust can they be legally removed from the property or do they have to remain until a legal dividing of property can take place?
4) If there is no other recourse, should this matter be turned over to probate court? If this were to happen what would be the likely outcome for personal property for sentimental reasons? My mother wants the family photographs and a few sentimental items she bought for my grandpa, but she has been threatened with being sued if she removes them from the property by the wife's executor.
5) The wife's executor is claiming she cannot work with us, even though we have asked to sit down and go through the house together. She is threatening a restraining order and a freezing of assets, is this possible if there were stocks specifically deeded to individual family members?
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. This is a truly confusing issue and time for us. We haven't even had the funeral yet and we currently don't have the money to hire a lawyer of our own, while the wife's executor has plenty of funds to hire a lawyer and keep this in court for years.
