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My mother recently passed. She had a living trust with the only asset in it is her house. I am sole executor of the trust. The only assets outside the trust are a savings account $800, nursing home account $4,050, and savings bonds estiamted at 25k. I want to probate these assets. Do I have the authority to execute this through the courts. The original will does not point an executor but all benificiaries (myself and 3 siblings) are the same as the trust, 25% each to each beneficiary. Does medicaid have claim to these savings bonds especially since they weren''t disclosed in the origianl medicaid application?

Submitted: 541 days and 16 hours ago.

Category: Estate Law

Value: $15

Status: AWAITING CUSTOMER ACTION

Posted by rvlaw 541 days and 15 hours ago.

Info Request

Hi,
Sorry for your loss.
What state are you in?
rich

541 days and 14 hours ago.

Reply

NY

Answer

Hi tax,
You are the next best thing to a named executor. You can petition the court to be appointed when offering the will for probate. Too bad ....if under 20K you could have filed an affidavit as a "small estate" in NY. The trust is self executing of course. You can't avoid the nursing home bill because the bonds SHOULD have been reported. You will see that when you fill out the probate forms you will have to list the bonds and the bill and give notice of probate to the home.
rich

Accepts:
Expert:	rvlaw
Pos. Feedback:	98.5 %
Answered:	5/31/2008

Attorney

30+ years in private practice handling estate matters; Law professor; Mediator.

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