estate settlement timeline questions

[ez]

A relative passed away 1.5 years ago and my children are getting trust funds from the estate which will be used towards their education. There was no real estate that needed to be sold in this estate, and we were originally told it would be settled last august. Then it was december, then jan, you get the picture. We have heard reports thru the executor, we had not called anyone to ask. Finally my husband called the attorney 2 months ago and he said most likely 2 weeks but on the outside a month. Then he called after a month and the attorney said letters were being sent out right away to see if anyone disputed the will, and that the whole process would be done in 3 weeks. So its been a month or so from that and still not even a letter. This is the first inheritance type of think we've ever had dealings with so I guess we are learning a big lesson about believing what the attorneys are saying. I am just disappointed cause we thought our kids would have access to these trust funds by now, I would have much rather been told from the outset it would take two years then keep changing it from month to month. Can anyone share experiences or shed some light on this...thanks so much.

 

[JessicaR]

Do you have an attorney that can make a phone call in your behalf?

 

[WoodDisney]

It depends on the State, the size of the Estate and if there is any objections to the will. I think 2 years is very long for an Estate with no disputes. I would question if this is being drawn out so the Executor and the Attorney can collect $$.

 

[bicker]

We closed my late mother's estate in the state-specified 8 month period.

 

[Heidict]

It my mom about 7 months to close my sister's estate. There was no property. Part of delay was due to the pension company. They kept stalling when it came to getting the check out.

Maybe they are running into trouble like that?

 

[Disney Doll]

Call an attorney and have your attorney call the estate's attorney.

 

[barkley]

It depends on the State, the size of the Estate and if there is any objections to the will. I think 2 years is very long for an Estate with no disputes. I would question if this is being drawn out so the Executor and the Attorney can collect $$.

depending on the state the estate is based in, the attorney and the executor's fees can be capped so that no matter how much time it takes to settle the estate it makes no financial difference in how much they receive (in california for example it's capped at 4% each for the first 100K, 3% for the next 100K and progresivly lower percentages on higher amounts of an estate's value). it's therefore of no benefit to either to draw things out.


dh is settling a family member's extate-it's considered a "simple" estate (no probate, no real estate). despite that it will be a minimum of 1 year from the death for the last accounting to occur and the final disbursement to go out (an initial went out within 90 days). reason being is absent probate in the state he's dealing with, the state allows creditors to bill up to one year from the date of death. it just so happens it times out so that the 2010 taxes will be done and hopefully back by then-but if not it would'nt happen before that.

if the estate had required probate 18 months would have been the MINIMUM time to settle.


one of the biggest delays in settling can be getting the proper documents-i know of someone who passed this month and their family was advised by the coroner of the city where the death occured that their processing time for issuing death certificates was running 3-4 months. they could get a letter certifying death, but not the official certificate which banks, pension plans, dmv and the like require. so in that estate's case-the minimum one year would realy even begin until sometime this fall.

 

[bumbershoot]

one of the biggest delays in settling can be getting the proper documents-i know of someone who passed this month and their family was advised by the coroner of the city where the death occured that their processing time for issuing death certificates was running 3-4 months. they could get a letter certifying death, but not the official certificate which banks, pension plans, dmv and the like require. so in that estate's case-the minimum one year would realy even begin until sometime this fall.

That just shocks me! When my FIL died, in Tacoma, I had the official death certificates inside of a week. MIL's pension and SS payments didn't miss even a month b/c of how fast they were done and how fast I got them mailed and faxed to the various places.

What would she have done if Tacoma's registrars had let themselves get so far behind?

 

[Marymom]

My grandmother's estate took over two years. The IRS did not agree with the valuation of the real estate, so we had to renegotiate. It was of course during the "boom". Her estate would be substantially lower in today's world.

 

[Nette]

Here in TX creditors that have not been contacted by the estate have up to FOUR YEARS to file with the estate. So I very well might still be settling my dad's estate 3.5 years from now. Joy.

 

[tasha99]

Here in Oregon it's only 4 months. You have to send out letters to creditors and companies you think may be creditors, and then post a legal add in the paper. Four years seems extreme!

 

[LadyZolt]

Here in Oregon it's only 4 months. You have to send out letters to creditors and companies you think may be creditors, and then post a legal add in the paper. Four years seems extreme!

It depends on the situation. I was personal representative of an estate in Oregon and it took over three years. The size of the estate and the specifics of the case are all unique and so some cases can take longer than others.

I settled two other estates in Oregon as well, and they both took only a few months.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[tasha99]

It depends on the situation. I was personal representative of an estate in Oregon and it took over three years. The size of the estate and the specifics of the case are all unique and so some cases can take longer than others.

I settled two other estates in Oregon as well, and they both took only a few months.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

No, I'm saying the time that creditors have to make a claim is 4 months from notification (if they don't get notified and should have been, I have no idea). I used to work in a law office that did a lot of probates. It would take at least 5 or 6 months because you have to wait for the claim period to end. It could take more, but we really tried to avoid letting it go over a year since then you have to do an annual account. Of course, that still happened sometimes, especially if there were complications.

Edit--wait, I see what happened. I thought I quoted the person who said creditors had 4 years, but I didn't. Oops.

 

[LadyZolt]

No, I'm saying the time that creditors have to make a claim is 4 months from notification (if they don't get notified and should have been, I have no idea). ....Edit--wait, I see what happened. I thought I quoted the person who said creditors had 4 years, but I didn't. Oops.

Ah! Yes, I totally agree with what you're saying. And I believe that the ad in the paper counts as notifying creditors, too, since it's possible the decedent had a debt that the executor doesn't know about. I think you have to send letters to people you know should be notified directly, like heirs or those who have an interest in the estate, too. Anyway, I agree with you that it's only a few months after the info is either sent by mail or printed in the paper.

-Dorothy

 

[Nette]

Here in Oregon it's only 4 months. You have to send out letters to creditors and companies you think may be creditors, and then post a legal add in the paper. Four years seems extreme!

Ah! Yes, I totally agree with what you're saying. And I believe that the ad in the paper counts as notifying creditors, too, since it's possible the decedent had a debt that the executor doesn't know about. I think you have to send letters to people you know should be notified directly, like heirs or those who have an interest in the estate, too. Anyway, I agree with you that it's only a few months after the info is either sent by mail or printed in the paper.

-Dorothy

I asked my lawyer about this last week. He told me that the ad in the paper does NOT count. But that if you send a letter to each of the creditors you KNOW about it's only 4 months. But how do you avoid the (4 year) waiting period for creditors you DON'T know about? I'm tempted to pull a credit report on my dad just to make sure I get them all.

 

[allison443]

A relative passed away 1.5 years ago and my children are getting trust funds from the estate which will be used towards their education. There was no real estate that needed to be sold in this estate, and we were originally told it would be settled last august. Then it was december, then jan, you get the picture. We have heard reports thru the executor, we had not called anyone to ask. Finally my husband called the attorney 2 months ago and he said most likely 2 weeks but on the outside a month. Then he called after a month and the attorney said letters were being sent out right away to see if anyone disputed the will, and that the whole process would be done in 3 weeks. So its been a month or so from that and still not even a letter. This is the first inheritance type of think we've ever had dealings with so I guess we are learning a big lesson about believing what the attorneys are saying. I am just disappointed cause we thought our kids would have access to these trust funds by now, I would have much rather been told from the outset it would take two years then keep changing it from month to month. Can anyone share experiences or shed some light on this...thanks so much.

My understanding is that the attorney actually works for the executor...why don't you speak to the executor? Is it another relative? The executor actually has legal duties as far as what needs to be done, etc. and should have an idea on specifics.

 

[LadyZolt]

I asked my lawyer about this last week. He told me that the ad in the paper does NOT count. But that if you send a letter to each of the creditors you KNOW about it's only 4 months. But how do you avoid the (4 year) waiting period for creditors you DON'T know about? I'm tempted to pull a credit report on my dad just to make sure I get them all.

I would pull the credit report, like you said, to see if there is anything you're not aware of. However, I think that if you show the court you diligently made all reasonable efforts to notify creditors, you shouldn't have to wait for four years. In one of the estates I settled, the decedent co-owned property with an uncle and we had to clear the title to that piece of land. Well, no one ever heard of this uncle -- he disappeared around 1935. We hired a company to locate him or his heirs and they discovered he'd been killed in a car accident around 1940 and that he had two children, so we tried to locate them, but we couldn't find them. We put ads in the papers of the last place we knew the uncle had lived and also in the local paper where the decedent lived and there was no reply. The court accepted these efforts as doing all we could to locate those people and then we were able to do what is called "quiet title" and get the title cleared since the decedent had actually been in possession of the land and the missing uncle had not even been on it since the early 1930's. Anyway, I think if you show that you've made reasonable and true efforts to locate creditors, the court should allow you to settle the estate without having to wait for four years.

-Dorothy