Q: My mom recently past and my sisters are keeping me out of any estate info. How do I protect my inheritance?
My mom has a lot of unknown assets and a home in FL. I found they have emptied her house and are giving away assets even prior to having a judge approve the will.
A:
Very sorry for your loss on the passing of your mother, please accept my condolences.
If a Will exists, it should be submitted to the clerk of the court in the county where your mom lived within 10 days. If your sisters are unwilling or unable to pursue probate, then you may want to step up and get a probate attorney and pursue becoming the named personal representative. While you are correct that an estate should not be handled in the manner that it currently appears to be getting done, sadly this is often the case and there is usually little to no recourse regaridng the items in the home that vanish. The named personal representative in the will should usually take steps as soon as possible to protect the property and all assets, but this cannot really be done until probate is filed and a personal representative is named. Assets that are in your mom's name alone will have to go through probate, if there is no surviving spouse, then assets will be distributed according to the will. The steps your sisters have taken are not proper or correct and are not the manner in which things should be handled related to an estate/probate. If they are not moving forward with a probate, the best option would be for you to get a Florida Attorney if this is all in Florida and try to move forward with trying to become the personal representative of your mom's estate.
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