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A "living trust" has trustee(s) named, not an executor. Sometimes the successor trustee is the lawyer who wrote the trust, sometimes it's a family member. Trusts can specify personal effects going to different people but most trusts are concerned with larger financial assets being removed from probate and saving probate costs.
My experience with our living trust is our lawyer was not interested in personal items at all when I asked. She told me to type up a list and include photos and put it in the trust papers, buh-bye. A trust is private, meaning the deceased's assets in the trust are never made public, but that also means relatives don't really have access to what is spelled out in the trust unless they are named in it, unlike a will which is public to the point of being held at the county courthouse where everyone can read it and get a copy of it. I saw a relative show up waving the courthouse copy of the will of his dead relative because he wanted to know if he convinced her to leave him something he pushed and pushed her about--she didn't.
What I personally experienced in 2 family members deaths is that personal items are not nailed down in wills/trusts. Who gets what really depends on who is on the scene and has access. Diamond rings an in-law scooped up with no notice given to family members because of her access. People think they got away with something but other relatives always know.
Apparently that's the case if there's a will (or if there's no will). But what about if the deceased had a living trust that names the executor? If everything's in order, that doesn't go to probate (which is the whole idea behind a living trust).
That's what my in laws had. The will poured over into the trust and the oldest sibling was the trustee/executor. Never went through probate. Not sure if that's really the best in all situations. She pretty much siphoned all the cash out of the accounts. There's no oversight and it wasn't enough money to get an attorney involved.
A "living trust" has trustee(s) named, not an executor. Sometimes the successor trustee is the lawyer who wrote the trust, sometimes it's a family member. Trusts can specify personal effects going to different people but most trusts are concerned with larger financial assets being removed from probate and saving probate costs.
My experience with our living trust is our lawyer was not interested in personal items at all when I asked. She told me to type up a list and include photos and put it in the trust papers, buh-bye. A trust is private, meaning the deceased's assets in the trust are never made public, but that also means relatives don't really have access to what is spelled out in the trust unless they are named in it, unlike a will which is public to the point of being held at the county courthouse where everyone can read it and get a copy of it. I saw a relative show up waving the courthouse copy of the will of his dead relative because he wanted to know if he convinced her to leave him something he pushed and pushed her about--she didn't.
What I personally experienced in 2 family members deaths is that personal items are not nailed down in wills/trusts. Who gets what really depends on who is on the scene and has access. Diamond rings an in-law scooped up with no notice given to family members because of her access. People think they got away with something but other relatives always know.
Yes, I didn't know they were public until a woman I know went to look up her aunt's will. Aunt had no children and owned several rental properties. Always said she would leave everything to her niece.
They had two kids who were baptized Catholic in her childhood church, but when they bought a house in the husband's hometown, he wanted to return to his childhood Episcopal church because the Catholic church doesn't allow non-Catholics to take Communion in their churches. They had their third child baptized there. Aunt did not attend.
They didn't hear anything from her for a while so the woman called a neighbor, who told her that the aunt was in the hospital. She called the hospital and was informed that her aunt was deceased. She called her old priest. He said she had requested no funeral, just had arranged a Catholic burial through her church.
A couple of months later, the woman went to the courthouse to see if a will had been filed. It was. Aunt left everything to some distant cousin on the other side of the country. Apparently she was upset by her niece having her last child baptized outside the Catholic church.
I always wondered if they would have done differently if they knew it meant she would be disinherited.
....A couple of months later, the woman went to the courthouse to see if a will had been filed. It was. Aunt left everything to some distant cousin on the other side of the country. Apparently she was upset by her niece having her last child baptized outside the Catholic church.
I always wondered if they would have done differently if they knew it meant she would be disinherited.
That seems to be a common occurrence, where a family member(s) helps out a relative for a number of years, and the older relative finally understands that the end is near, and they finally draw up a will. But at some point, just before the will is drawn, the long time caregiver did something to annoy the older relative, and he/she suddenly overlooks all the good that was done for them, and they leave their entire estate to the relative they haven't seen in decades, just because..........
(yes, this very recently happened to my wife and I)
VERY interesting......one of my wife's relatives recently died. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, which occurred before his wife died, 3 years ago, we haven't spoken to him in that amount of time. He always swore that he didn't have a will, but now one of his nephews is claiming to be the executor of the decedent's will. The decedent just died, 10-12 days ago, so I can't believe that the estate has gone to probate already.
Usually you can't file the will in probate for ten days after death.
Depends what's being taken. Mom's old coffee mug that was a gift with the kid's faces on it? Or Mom's diamond tennis bracelets.
They aren't the same.
In terms of sentimentality they may well be the same. That old coffee mug might hold just as much or more value in the eyes of her heirs than the bracelets. If there's a dispute, the bracelets could be sold and proceeds divided...the mug can't.
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