Probate Court/Declaration of Assets??!!

[SinkingFast]

As some of you may remember,......... My Brother's wife died last summer. They bought $10K policies each about 6 months before SIL died. The insurance declinded payment because they hadn't had the insurance in effect for 2 years prior to her death.

When SIL died, neither one of them had a will. So, Brother had to go to Court to appointed Executor of SIL Estate. At that time, he was still expecting the Life Insurance Co to pay on the policy. So, Brother had to post a $10K bond for SIL's Estate.

Today Brother was served a summons, by the County Sheriff. The Probate Court has given him until April 17th to explain why Brother did not produce and submit a list of the assets of SIL's Estate. Otherwise, the Probate Court will file a Judgement against Brother for not notifying the Court about SIL's assets.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this??!!

[Minnymouth]

Oh Yeah,

Your Brother assumed the responsibilities as Executor of the Estate...... whether there be assets or not...... he thought their would be with the insurance policy (if paid)....

Soooooo, in most states he is required by law to file a report to the Probate Court of any assets that she might have had........ Thus the Court can make a ruling on her Estate.....

Normally a spouse inheirts everything unless there is a will.....specifing differently.

Your Brother needs to contact the Probate Court Clerk and find out what his obligations are to the Court......

If there is no assets involved then all he has to do is file a report stating such........

Have him contact the Probate Clerk of Courts as quickly as possible, lt them know he "DID NOT UNDERSTAND HIS OBLIGATIONS", and get that report turned in.......

He will still have to appear in front of the judge with his report so the judge can rule the case closed......

Hope this helps........

PS - the clerk of Probate Court can really help him a lot with questions he may have...... just ask them......

Minny

[SinkingFast]

Thanks for the info, Minny!!

He hired an attny to get appointed Executor of the Estate. So when he got this Summons, Brother was surprised. Brother figured if there was anything to do, the attny would have told him.

Brother's SILs all came over one day between Thanksgiving and Christmas and went thru SIL's things. Brother picked out items he wanted to keep and the SILs packed up the rest to take to Goodwill. I told Bro not to tell the Court he'd gotten rid of anything just in case.

I guessed it was the Court wanting to know what SIL had worth $10K. I told Brother he would probably need to file something saying he thought he would collect on the insurance, but now it's been declined.

I'll tell him to call the Clerk of the Probate Court, Minny. Let them tell him what he needs to do.

Thanks much for the insight, Minny. I sure do appreciate your help!!