Been 2 years, still no money from my fathers estate, are they messing with me? PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!?

Question

Little backstory, me and my siblings dont have the same mom so I dont talk to them much, and I dont talk to their side of the family AT ALL.

Also the will was unsigned, and the estate is "unsupervised"....im not sure if thats bad or not aswell.

Ok, well my father passed away march of 2006, while he was in the hospital on his death bed, a lawyer came and i had to sign a paper to make my aunt executor i believe....i was not in a mindstate to think anyone would be screwing me over so i signed.

My father left a buisness, which was sold for 133,000 last summer , and he also left houses which arent sold yet. they were appraised though.

well it will be 2 years in march and i still havent recieved my full share.

In may of 2007 my aunt had me and my 2 siblings go to her house and she gave us each 7,000 dollars of the money...she said she couldnt give it all yet because she has to wait and see if anyone comes forward that my dad owes. she said in a few months if they dont come forward she would distribute the rest and put me and my siblings in charge of selling the houses on our own.

Well I wait and wait and still nothing,its been 6 months since that happened and everytime i talk to my brother he tells me the moneys coming and were waiting to go into probate, that my aunt is just busy and shes taking longer than she should because she works for the mayor and is always busy.

He seems sincere and in need of money as much as I am and seems like hes being serious about it but i dont I dont trust him or anyone on that side of the family, so im kinda scared I may be getting screwed and I dont know what to do.

Just recently he called to tell me that he asked our aunt to give us a little more cash, well supposedly im supposed to be recieveing a 500 dollar check soon...and in the mail tommorow im supposed to recieve an inventory list of the estate.

I have a question though.....How can she distribute money little by little but has to wait for probate to give it all out?

Are they messing with me?

Also ive tried to contact he lawyer that handles the estate a few months back and he told me not to call him, but to call my aunt and talk to her because he costs 100 dollars an hour and that these things take time.....even though my dads estate money is paying for him, im not allowed to talk to him? I dont get it.

Please give me your opinion on the situation. and any ideas of what I should do?

Thank you alot.

Answer 1

Sorry I can not help you out since I don't know anything about legal matters. You should probably keep a copy of the will you signed if you are allowed to make copies of it for your own records. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probate shows the steps of probat. It seems handing out money before everything is resolved is kinda out of the steps but might not be not adviced. I think death and money really gets families to show there true colors whatever they may be. I hope you work out everything. byebye

Answer 2

You should look in the Yellow Pages for another lawyer who practices probate law at a reasonable rate (up to $150/hr). Call and explain the situation to him or her and see if s/he will write to the existing lawyer to inquire what is going on with the case. 2 years is not out of the question for a probate case, but no lawyer should tell you not to call. True, the estate may pay $100/hour for the currently lawyer, but it's not like the full $100 comes from you (it would be maybe $33 or $20 depending on how many heirs), and besides which, it wouldn't take an hour for him to explain what's going on.