Eloise, FL Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

You are an heir of the deceased grandmother. You have a right to a share of the property if there is no Will. Yes, you have a right to read the Will.

Yes, in Florida if a person is survived by a spouse, the spouse gets to keep the first $20,000 in household property and up to 2 cars. However, there is an exception if the item(s) was specifically bequeathed to someone else in the will.

Any action against a trustee and their agents will be dealt with in a court action, and court records are public so the identity of all the parties will be known. Any attorney you hire will necessarily have to know who all the parties are that are responsible for your losses, in order to effectively represent you in recovering them. That said, you need to hire an attorney to explore all of your options as soon as possible, with an emphasis on the best options to help you recover your missing funds in the shortest time with the smallest expense. In some cases of embezzlement, this means involving criminal law enforcement aspects to help you receive restitution. In other cases, it may be better to handle it in civil court to increase your chances of recovery (i.e. they can't pay you back your money if they are all in jail and not working). But no matter which method is chosen, you will need an attorney with experience in dealing with trustee breaches, who can help you reconstruct the accounting records to figure out exactly how much was taken, and what can be done about those fiduciary duty breaches. California law provides many protections for a beneficiary who has had funds misappropriated by trustees, including but not limited to the possible availability of "double damages" recovery. This is not a widely known remedy, and we have used it very effectively in several cases. It is important to take action as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the more stale the money trail becomes, and the more time you give the other side to hide/spend your money or cover their tracks. Seek an experienced attorney's advice immediately.