Need advice as administrator to will

Question

My uncle passed with no will. My aunt and my mother are only surviving family . My aunt was the power of attorney before he died. After his death she sold property of the estate and gave other things away without consulting my mom. I became administrator of his estate. There is a house that is being rented out and eventually bought . They are sending rent to aunt. I have sent court papers to all parties involved about me being administrator. My aunt is ignoring them . She has not sent me any info on where belongings and money have gone. The tenets of the house are not sending payment to me to distribute fairly . What are my options

Richard Sternberg · Answer

Your options as I see them without an interview are: 
 
1) Accept that your aunt is stealing from the estate. As Administrator of the estate who failed to protect the estate, you are likely to be personally liable for her thefts. 
 
2) Resign and report the thefts to the Court. Let is be someone else's problem, and only be liable for what you should have done before resigning. 
 
3) Get a lawyer who will be paid from the assets of the estate, and file the proper motion in court to obtain control and do your job to garner the assets for accounting and distribution.  
 
4) Do nothing, and hope that the problem goes away all by itself.  
 
If I was your lawyer, I would recommend #3.  
 
Reading an answer on the Internet does not create an attorney-client relationship. You are represented by me when we have both signed a retainer agreement (on paper or electronically) and some money has changed hands. Usually, you will have been asked specific questions about your situation and all potential conflicts of interest will have been resolved. Until then, you have no more right to rely on this answer than if you read it in a novel.

Nina Whitehurst · Answer

Wills do not automatically administer themselves, and you are NOT the executor of an estate, even though you were nominated as such in the will, until a court decrees it so.  Find a local probate attorney to petition the local probate court to have you appointed as the executor.  That should result in Letters Testamentary being issued by the court.  Those Letters should give you the authority to do a lot of things, fix a lot of problems.  And, as my colleague Richard Sternberg noted, the estate pays the court costs and legal fees.

Q: Need advice as administrator to will