Donalsonville, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

First I will assume that he was not married to one women and that he had a girlfriend on side. If that is the case, the wife would have rights. Assuming you were 18 or older when your unmarried/divorced dad died and he was competent when he made the beneficiary designations, he could leave his assets to whomever he choose, be it a girlfriend, boyfriend, charity, or family. There is no requirement that he provide for an adult child.

Your intuition is correct: it is neither normal nor common for an investment advisor to seek to become the Executor or a trustee under a client's estate plan, unless that client is also a family member of the investment advisor. Your wife's parents are best advised to seek a different investment advisor. They may also want to seek a different attorney, if their estate planning attorney isn't telling them that this is a red flag. In my experience, most investment advisors are not even ALLOWED by their broker-dealers to serve in fiduciary roles for clients. Even attorneys, who are allowed to do so under the state Bar's ethics rules, can only do so under very limited circumstances, and cannot suggest to the client that the client choose the attorney (the client has to come up with that request on his or her own, and then the attorney must fully explain potential conflicts of interest that the attorney's service will create, along with the other options for someone who could serve in that role instead of the attorney. Best wishes to you, your wife, and her parents. I hope they will move away from that advisor.  

Without knowing a lot more facts about the situation, no one can really answer the question of whether or not $8,000 is an unreasonable amount. It sounds like there may be a need to open at least your husband's mother's estate, and maybe both her estate and his sister's estate. Depending on a whole lot of factors, opening (or re-opening) either of these estates 16 years after the fact could be a LOT of work. If it's a whole lot of work, the fees and costs might easily reach the $8,000 level. Or more. Another thing that can't be told from your post is whether the $8,000 being requested is a retainer amount, where if it isn't all used, the remaining amount will be refunded when the work is completed, or a flat fee. And other factors also include: what state or states will be involved, how experienced is the attorney, are there other issues you aren't describing, who would have been the heirs at the time your husband's mother died and whether all of those people are still living or whether some of them are now also deceased, etc. If your husband isn't comfortable with the fee quoted, he should get a second opinion. However, this forum does not really allow a second opinion to be provided. He'll need to speak to an attorney directly for that. Best wishes to you both.