My mother was in a care facility in Oregon and she passed away. I am
only surviving sibling and was not promptly notified of the death. I
live in Alaska.
There was a living trust administered by a bank and a Will to make the
transfers to the trust at death. The is personal representative for
the Will and trustee for the Trust.
The personal representative authorized the granddaughter to remove all
property from the care facility including the family heirlooms such as
wedding rings, and personal effects without my knowledge or consent.
He also made only a minor effort to locate me early on even though he
had contact information for me in his file. I don't think he has
acted maliciously though ... sloppy perhaps.
There is not a reasonable accounting of the heirlooms or the remainder
of the personal property that was removed.
The granddaughter has disposed of some of the furniture and other
things. She has also chosen family items which she intends to keep for
herself against my wishes. Unfortunately she has them in her
possession because of the personal representative's failure to take
them into his control until all of the parties were notified.
The articles are family heirlooms and do not have any real monetary
value.
They question: Can the personal family property such as the rings and
family photos be recovered or can the granddaughter simply keep what
she wishes? This seems to me to be looting the dead.
==>>Most of this depends upon what exactly the trust says. If the pour-over
will put ALL the assets into the trust, then typically the trustee can
dispose of the assets in accordance with the provisions of the trust. If
the trustee is given broad discretionary powers, there may be nothing that
can be done. However, you may be able to petition to have this trustee
removed as trustee if you can show that he/she did not exercise proper
diligence in the performance of his/her duties.
There were no provisions in the will for the personal family property
and no evidence that any of it was given to the grandchild.. I am the
only surviving member of the family also.
=========>>> if the will transferred the assets and the personal property to
the trust upon death, then the will has no more control over the disposition
of the personal property. Again what does the trust say?
Who has a legal right to the family personal property such as rings,
letters and photos?
Has the bank acted irresponsibility by allowing the granddaughter to
collect these items without my knowledge or consent and subsequently
not having an accounting for them?
===>> I believe that depends on your state laws, but I believe that in
Maryland at least the Personal Representative named in the pour-over will
has to file an inventory with the court showing which assets were
transferred to the trust. But if it was only personal items of no intrinsic
value, it may be that no accounting is required.
Would I need to bring an action or would I need to give the bank some
form
of notice which will force them to deal with the return of the
property? They are still holding several thousand dollars of the
trust funds and they have charged the trust over $6000 to act as the
personal representative.
Thanks for your thoughts.
