Roberta, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

It all depends on whether the deed is a tenants in common deed or a joint tenants with rights of survivorship deed. If it is a joint tenants with rights of survivorship, you need to do nothing.  If it is any other kind of deed, some action in probate court will be required.  It might be as simple as a Petition for Year's Support or a Petition to Appoint Permanent Administrator.

I would be happy to assist you. Do you have a copy of the Trust or is it part of the will you are trying to locate?  You should be able to get a copy of the will by call the Surrogate's Court in NY in the county where your grandfather died. Appointing a new trustee has become easier in the last few years, but it all depends on the appointments clause in the trust.  I would need to see the trust to advice how simple or hard it will be.  Either way, we can get a new trustee appointed.

If your mother named you as the POD beneficiary on an account, that account belongs to you, and it does not become part of your mother's probate estate. It DOES become part of her estate for estate tax purposes, so if your mother's estate was large enough that an estate tax return is required, or if she was married and the Executor wants to allow her surviving spouse to use her remaining estate tax exemption and so an estate tax return is needed, then the Executor would need information about what was held in any such account at the date of your mother's death. But the Executor is not entitled to the funds. They're yours.