I am in Probate now and am the Administrator.

When information was sent to the Referee I objected to two things the Estate Attorney had included.
1. The Attorney had asked me to value the furniture in the house so he could send out waivers to the Beneficiaries so that I could either sell or donate. I used an online program to value for donation as the furniture wax over 30 years old. The Attorney never sent out the waivers and what he did with the information was to include the value of household items to the Inventory & Appraisal Attachment #2. I argued and argued and he came back and told me that the Referee said that since I had given value to the items they had to be included. Of course so it would inflate his fee paid. The furniture sat in my garage for 5 months because I thought I needed the waivers. In May the Attorney asked me where the furniture was and then he told me I needed to donate it and I told him it was in my garage, he told me that I did not need a waiver to donate the furniture.

2. There were three weeks of terrible storms and there were roof tiles all over the yard. I entered a claim with the mobiles insurance company and I had received a check for approximately $4k. I had not been appointed the Administrator yet so I deposited into one of my fathers accounts and then the account was frozen due to my father's death. The cost to replace the roof was $5700 and was from my personal account. I argued with the Estate Attorney that the $4K was not an asset of the Estate. The $4K was included in the Inventory & Appraisal Attachment #1 when sent to the Referee. I would not sign off on the $4k and information had to be filed with the court 12/19/11.

I would never do anything illegal and I want to know if what I was instucted to do is legal. On Friday's I work half days. The attorney sent me an email Friday, 12/16/11 with the documentation received from the Referee with his signature. The Attorney sent me the document template for me to deduct the $4K from the attachment and to change the TOTAL CASH value. I was to sign the document and scan and email him a copy of revised documents and I was to make sure it was in his office by 10 a.m. Monday,12/19/11 for filing with the Probate Court. I was confused on something and called his cell phone and he was on his way out of town for the weekend. The conversation was breaking up and I had to wait for his return call when he had more bars on this cell phone to answser my question in order to follow his instructions. Was what I instructed to do LEGAL?? I have no Legal experience at all, I have worked for 42 years with the same Corporation and all but threee years have been in Accounting positions.

Optional Information:
State/Country relating to question: California

Already Tried:
I hired an Estate Attorney to represent me as the Administrator and have concerns on Legal matters