Humblepieinthesky9
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Alabama
I will do my best to constrain myself to only the facts. This is a tragic tale of how a knowledgeable predator and an ignorant, grieving family can have a terrible result. My Mom died in 2010. She and my Dad had executed a Joint Will or individual Wills several years earlier. For reasons that will soon be clear, my Dad never produced a will for her.
Dad remarried a few weeks after Mom died. His new wifey had a plan for us all. My parents had told us children on more than one occasion the terms of their will - upon the death of one of them, everything split 4 ways (a share for the surviving parent and a share for each of us three children - if they both died, the estate went 3 ways). Several months into his new marriage, Dad and new wife told us they were doing a new Will. They said it was written the same way as the previous Will my Dad had with my Mom. Then my Dad died a year later - 2014.
The new wifey pulls out the new Will. Dad left everything to her (over $2million). This Will was witnessed by two of her close friends, and had no notary seal stamp. Two of my siblings were intentionally "omitted" from the Will altogether. I didn't get anything Either, but was named as alternate executor, after the new wifey. After my Dad's funeral, she flew into action. Wanted to start selling vehicles and other valuables that were sentimental to us kids.
I will skip a lot of damning and tragic narrative here and keep on track.
My Mom was no career person. She just raised us Kids and worked part time. But two years before she died, she got a letter stating she had inherited a chunk of money. Dad never showed any interest in the inheritance and often said it had to be a scam. Mom signed the form and sent it in.
When Dad married the new wifey, he suddenly developed an interest - along with her - in getting Moms inheritance. When he died, a few months later, the new wifey (his executor and sole beneficiary) mentioned to me that she was working on getting our Moms money. Us kids despised her and were still seething. Yet we were ignorant of the law and had no money to pursue it ourselves, so we said OK. Little did we know that she had petitioned to be administrator of my Moms estate. We had no idea. She published the notice in a paper she knew none of us would see.
She received the funds from the inheritance approximately a year before she let us know she had them. In fact, we now know based on court documents, the probate judge became concerned and ordered a hearing. Then she flew into action. She sent out notice to creditors and created a "final settlement" for the estate. Remember my Dad's estate? She had left it open so she could claim the spousal allowance from my Moms estate thru his.
She was smart. She called us kids individually and said our Moms money was in and we had to sign a release to get our share. She made us sign the release before she sent us the settlement statement. She got 85 percent of my Moms estate between administrator commission, expenses, spousal allowance, etc. She left us with only a few thousand each.
I take full responsibility for being so ignorant of the law and the process. I now know I could have stopped her at multiple points in the process. What I need to know - because just about every law firm around here is affiliated with her attorneys and won't tell me anything other than I have no options - is this: Is there any way to appeal, challenge, or reopen the estates? Is there anything I can do to expose her for the larcenist she is? My siblings and I are devastated that we allowed this predator to do this. She finally closed the estates in March of of this year. She enriched herself thru deceit, concealment, and obvious fraud.
Can I file some kind of complaint or suit? Anything? Please...any advice is appreciated.
Dad remarried a few weeks after Mom died. His new wifey had a plan for us all. My parents had told us children on more than one occasion the terms of their will - upon the death of one of them, everything split 4 ways (a share for the surviving parent and a share for each of us three children - if they both died, the estate went 3 ways). Several months into his new marriage, Dad and new wife told us they were doing a new Will. They said it was written the same way as the previous Will my Dad had with my Mom. Then my Dad died a year later - 2014.
The new wifey pulls out the new Will. Dad left everything to her (over $2million). This Will was witnessed by two of her close friends, and had no notary seal stamp. Two of my siblings were intentionally "omitted" from the Will altogether. I didn't get anything Either, but was named as alternate executor, after the new wifey. After my Dad's funeral, she flew into action. Wanted to start selling vehicles and other valuables that were sentimental to us kids.
I will skip a lot of damning and tragic narrative here and keep on track.
My Mom was no career person. She just raised us Kids and worked part time. But two years before she died, she got a letter stating she had inherited a chunk of money. Dad never showed any interest in the inheritance and often said it had to be a scam. Mom signed the form and sent it in.
When Dad married the new wifey, he suddenly developed an interest - along with her - in getting Moms inheritance. When he died, a few months later, the new wifey (his executor and sole beneficiary) mentioned to me that she was working on getting our Moms money. Us kids despised her and were still seething. Yet we were ignorant of the law and had no money to pursue it ourselves, so we said OK. Little did we know that she had petitioned to be administrator of my Moms estate. We had no idea. She published the notice in a paper she knew none of us would see.
She received the funds from the inheritance approximately a year before she let us know she had them. In fact, we now know based on court documents, the probate judge became concerned and ordered a hearing. Then she flew into action. She sent out notice to creditors and created a "final settlement" for the estate. Remember my Dad's estate? She had left it open so she could claim the spousal allowance from my Moms estate thru his.
She was smart. She called us kids individually and said our Moms money was in and we had to sign a release to get our share. She made us sign the release before she sent us the settlement statement. She got 85 percent of my Moms estate between administrator commission, expenses, spousal allowance, etc. She left us with only a few thousand each.
I take full responsibility for being so ignorant of the law and the process. I now know I could have stopped her at multiple points in the process. What I need to know - because just about every law firm around here is affiliated with her attorneys and won't tell me anything other than I have no options - is this: Is there any way to appeal, challenge, or reopen the estates? Is there anything I can do to expose her for the larcenist she is? My siblings and I are devastated that we allowed this predator to do this. She finally closed the estates in March of of this year. She enriched herself thru deceit, concealment, and obvious fraud.
Can I file some kind of complaint or suit? Anything? Please...any advice is appreciated.