Tyrone, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

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.

Your stepfather has the legal right to the year's support, and you cannot prevent him from making a claim for it under Georgia law. All that any other heir can do with regard to a year's support petition is try to argue that the amount being requested is too much, given the surviving spouse's other resources. Unfortunately, if you don't hire a good estate litigation attorney who has experience in contesting year's support claims, you will likely have little to no chance to succeed in such a challenge. I'm sorry for your loss, but unfortunately the year's support right given to a surviving spouse is pretty strong in Georgia. If your mother really didn't want your stepfather to receive anything from her estate, she REALLY needed to do some estate planning (not just a Will, either).

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your father. As for your question, something is odd about what you are saying you've been told. If the property was owned by your father when he died, then either (1) the title to the property is still in his estate, because he was either the sole owner or he owned his interest in the property with other owners, but as tenants in common, or (2) the title to the property actually belongs to other people already, and no part of it is in his estate, either because he and the other owners held the property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship or because he died without any valid Will in place and the property passed to his heirs at his death under Georgia law, subject to being pulled back into his estate by the appointment of an administrator. If your father's interest in the property did not pass automatically to you and your brother as surviving joint tenants, then you and your brother should not be able to sell the property at all until his estate is opened, UNLESS you are selling it as his only heirs, he had no Will, and his estate has not been opened for administration. However, in that case, the check should be made out directly to the two of you, not to your father's estate. If you are being told that the check should be made to the estate, and the estate has not been opened yet, you should not be able to even sell the property until the estate has been opened. You need to hire a probate attorney who can sit down and actually review all of the relevant facts of the situation and guide you on what to do and what to tell the person who is trying to make out the check. If you need to open the estate, the probate attorney can help with that. If you and your brother really don't need to open the estate, then the probate attorney may be able to help you explain that to the real estate attorney and get the check made out directly to you. This kind of forum does not allow anyone to provide you with that kind of situation-specific legal advice, however. Best wishes to you.