Q: Can my sibling make false accusations against me as administrator of my dads estate regarding belongings (assets)?
I was just appointed administrator to my dads estate. I've had to prematurely remove all assets left at my dad's property do to my brother taking the majority of high priced belongings. None of the assets are in my dads name. But I have been verbally threatened by my half brother which lives out of state with the threat of he will call probate and lie saying I have assets that I in fact truly do not. PLEASE HELP ME. What prevents him from continuing to keep taking assets and afterwards denying the true value of those assets to gain more????
A:
As the administrator, your first job is to secure the assets in the estate. This means all assets, including tangible personal property (the stuff in his house, art work, furniture, jewelry, etc) which are owned solely by your father. You should also demand that your brother return any asset he has removed. Those need to be valued and included in the estate.
If you know what he removed, you should make a list of those items. You can go to the probate court and ask for advice about how to account for those items on the inventory.
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