Didn't want is own thread, but parents gave me will and trust paperwork as they are getting older. old from 2022, I'm debating urging them to update. My concern is trust says to be divided with my younger brother equally but he's listed as the trustee. sure he lives close to them but he's kinda a loser living in one of their houses now. My fear is him trying to fuck me on 2.5 mill in property and up to maybe another mil in investments. Sure I can sue the estate but he can blow plenty of the money on his lawyers.
I wouldn't want sole trustee either as I wouldn't put that much trust in either of us. But at least I'm stable enough to live my life without counting on inheritance vs my brother that lost his decent hvac job and now working as done dead end warehouse assembly worker.
Wondered if maybe
Burren
or
Sanrith Descartes
could look at it and give an opinion or hell, for the actual lawyers pay for some legit council.
Anecdotal info. i just went through the process with my mom in Florida. We had beneficiary set up on all her accounts. The transfer went smooth as glass. The only thing I had to probate was her house and car.
Friend going through the process now with him and his brother as co-executors. The estate was bigger and they didn't have beneficiary set up on accounts since their dad wanted things split. It's a shit show. They can't agree on things and it's been about 6 months and they have no end in sight.
Based on the experiences above, I HIGHLY recommend having your parents having every asset account assigned to one or the other as a beneficiary on death. That eliminates the need for court and lawyers on those accounts. Then choose someone willing to go through the hassle of being the executor for the property that needs the court. If neither of you are a good choice then maybe pay an attorney to do it.
Also, have the will looked at by an atty ahead of time if an atty didn't draw it up. It sounds simple, but one little issue can void the entire will. This happened to ours (even though it was notarized) and it was voided. Luckily I was sole descendent so it fell to me under the law anyway and there was no other party contesting it.
My experience with this is until you have done it, you can't know how fucked up the process can get since it's the court and judges and that every bank, hospital etc will not tell you shit even with a death certificate. They want the court paper assigning the executor. And after someone passes it's too late to fix things. Spend the time making sure the will is airtight before anyone dies.
Also, simple things like paying their bills while waiting for the court gets screwy. Banks will lock all their accounts and only the executor can access them. So any delay getting the court to approve of the executor means you are covering those bills out of your pockets.
All of this depends on your state as well.
Hope this helps.
Edit: I forgot to mention that your parents setting up a trust for everything is worth looking at as well. It streamlines a lot of the potential issues.
