Oxnard, CA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

If your brother is the sole beneficiary, then it is his. What makes you think that he is sole beneficiary? He would be sole beneficiary if your father left a will saying, for example, I have two children, namely A and B. I give my estate to B. But if he did not leave a will, how can YOU say that B is the sole beneficiary

A Living Will is typically a declaration of the persons intentions and preferences relating to life sustaining treatments near the end of life. A Power of Attorney for Property grants authority to an agent that allows the agent to deal with the property of the principal. If your father does not have a joint owner on his financial accounts and did not appoint an agent granted authority to deal with his financial accounts then there is no one with legal authority to assist him when he does not have the legal competency or capacity to act on his own. In this case the only option is to open a court proceeding and have a guardian appointed. The court will appoint a guardian to manage the estate and assets for someone who is unable to manage their own business affairs. This is a costly process but the only available procedure where the individual is unable to act on their own and no prior arrangements were made. After death, the representative of the estate would be able to deal with the assets in the estate and the guardianship will be closed.

A trustee must have proper authority in order to act on behalf of the trust.  But that may not be the issue here.  This sounds like more fraud and breach of fiduciary duty in which the court may surcharge the trustee for wrongdoing.  Discuss further with your attorney to add additional causes of action.