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Estate probate (Wills & Trusts)

Thu, 07 Sep 2000 19:30:00 GMT

I"M in Illinois. My brother passed away four years ago. He was not married and had no children.
The house was sold a year after his death and so I have been told so was all his personal property. The administrator wanted to close the estate finally this year but when I received my accounting all it said was personal property sold for x amount. It did not list anything. I have asked for an itemized accounting and asked about several items by name. Then I got the answer the administrator has found she made a few mistakes, she purchased some of the items but the check got misplaced and she just now came across it, and the IRS never sent the $2600.00 tax refund we'll have to check on that, Some of the items were purchased by another brother who has since passed away but he never paid for them, and his estate says he did. I have found discrepencies in the amounts she claims to have received for certain items and when faced with the knowledge that I have talked to the people who purchased these items then it was just an error she wrote it down wrong.
The estate lawyer is no help he just says I'll have to talk to the administrator and then I never hear anything. I have sent many letters and had many meetings and still I can't get an answer as to where this property has gone. This was not a large estate maybe $45,000.00 total including the real estate. Please tell me what course of action I have or how to get the court to intervene in this estate.
The administrator is a relative and heir of this estate and I have been asking for this information since 1997 at which point I did have a lawyer to fight for me, but the estate is not worth a big lawyer bill. There should be something the average person can do on there own. Am I not entitled to this information?

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  • Fri, 08 Sep 2000 10:32:00 GMT(1)
  • One issue is who was the administrator and why were you not involved sooner? Did the court appoint a crony or a political hack or a relative or yours?
    The other problem is that with a $45k estate it is large enough to be interested in but not so large as to justify huge litigation expenses, especially as it will be divided up among others, and I assume your share is apparently $10-15k, and some of your brothers may have gotten a bit too much already, so on one level it would be you against them.
    I suggest that you retain a new lawyer from the NEXT county to do a limited amount of work for you and get his or her advice as to what can be done -- if anything -- and what that would cost. Then decide if it is worth it to you.
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