Inheritance from Germany

[cpavlick]

A close friend of mine has an inheritance from his mother (German) deposited in a German bank. There were 4 surviving
children and grandchildren to whom these funds were to be dispersed. Two of them live here in the united states and two live in Germany. All of them have filled out the appropriate paperwork to withdraw this money.

Papers were filed in January of this year and yet my friend has not
yet received these funds. I have told him he should speak with
a lawyer who is familiar with international banking law since the bank in question is obligated to disperse these funds as soon as
the paperwork is processed.

Is this correct?

Thanks very much.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I guess the simple question is -- has the bank been contacted to determine whether the papers have been processed and how long the duration of completing the transaction could be?

 

[cpavlick]

My friend has called the bank several times and each time was told that the transaction to disburse the money was imminent (within a week or two.) As I said in previous post, all the inheritors had their paperwork filed by early January of this year.

The money did sit in the bank for a long time, a matter of some 10 years.

There was some provision that "all" survivors had to agree to withdraw the money or "none" of them could touch it. The actual process to withdraw the money started in September of 2001, but two of the surviving grandchildren were only contacted in December of that year. They filed their paperwork in early January 2002, after the other inheritors had already filed theirs.

Thank you again for your help.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Have you contacted all the distributees? If yes, you may want to send a letter (preferably with the Germany-based relatives address at the top of the signature list with all of your names as a potential local litigant is never preferable), certified, perhaps even a follow up by fax to an individual, stating the situation. I'd make it polite but assertive. A demand letter is almost always a necessary prerequisite to any suit, at least IMHO.