Additional Information: What are my right since my mother pass away and there are 10 other siblings involved concerning our mother house and any money that she may have left behind after her final expense has been taking care of? ATTORNEY ANSWER: First, you need to determine which assets will need to be probated.  Any assets which were owned by your mother jointly with another person or had a beneficiary designation on them will pass directly

Additional Information: A man now only holds a life estate for the house he lives in and signed the deed over to his 2 daughters. Can he sell the house and avoid the capital gain fees because he has lived there for 2+ years out of the past 5 years. Or do his daughters have to sell the house and property and pay the capital gain? ATTORNEY ANSWER: Currently the father owns a life estate and

Additional Information: According to an irrevocable trust, as a income beneficiary, I am allowed access to the principal of my trust share trust only under certain ascertainable standards–h/e/m/s. Also, the “trustee’s determination shall be conclusive.  The trustee “shall” take into consideration my “income or capital resources from any source.”  Does this mean that if I have a large amount of resources outside the trust that it will be hard for me to access the principal, if

Additional Information: If the deceased had a pour over will filed in probate and any of this assets that wasn’t put into the trust, would pour over from his estate into the trust? If the estate has a independent representative administering the estate, if the administer doesn’t follow the pour over will and by pass the trust without pour over the estate to the trust. Is that illegal? A trust is business; would it have a

Additional Information: The spouse would like to leave all assets, tangible items, and insurance payouts to the children only. ATTORNEY ANSWER: There is no requirement that a spouse leave assets to the other spouse in a revocable trust or a will. However, most states have statutes which allow the disinherited spouse to make an election against the decedent’s estate to claim a spousal share. 

Additional Information: I am in charge of an estate and I put the will in probate on 2/2010 and the estate was left 45% of a company and the other 55%.  The man who is running the company was left the 55% and we asked him to buy us out and he said no and is not willing to negotiate a purchase price.   How do I go forward with this situation ? Also he has

Additional Information: My Mom, who is 87 yrs. old and has dementia/early Alzheimer’s, is living with me.  She owns a home, which my daughter and her family are living in currently.  What can I do to prevent the seizure by Medicaid of her home when she has to enter a nursing home, if anything? What are my options with this? ATTORNEY ANSWER: Medicaid will not seize a home if your mother enters a nursing and is

Additional Information: My Father died intestate & my surviving 93 year old mother refuses to discuss a will so she will also die intestate. I would like to add my sister’s name to the deed on my Mother’s house so the house will be owned as Joint Tenants with rights of survivorship. This way when my Mother dies, we can avoid probate. Right now the deed has both my deceased Father & living Mother as owners.

Additional Information: My dad broke his hip at his house, there are just too many stairs for him to safely navigate.  We sold my dad’s house; used the money as a downpayment on our new ranch style house for myself, my wife and my dad. We went though an Massachusetts eldercare lawyer who created the deed giving my dad a life estate and my wife and myself ownership after my father’s death. My name is the

Additional Information: My friend had a will and then wanted changes.  She had the lawyer draft the changes but she never signed the changes.  Does the lawyer refer to the original will or can the changes be added without her signature? ATTORNEY ANSWER: Your friend’s Last Will and Testament will be the controlling document. The court will not honor an unsigned Codicil. Margaret L. Cross-Beliveau, Esq., LL.M. Legal Disclaimer: