Declining to be the executor of my parents' estate

[Quiet Pine]

Ours is a Living Trust...went to an Attorney and had ours updated to make sure that it was current for AZ.

We did the same when we moved to AZ. The attorney looked it over, saw that I had a substantial amount as separate property (inheritance from dad's trust), and said we didn't need that because we'd been married for almost 50 years. WHAT??? That's not his decision. I knew DH resented that inheritance so I kept my mouth shut, and it makes no difference to our daily life or estate planning, but the attorney was out of line. It he thought that, he should have spoken to me privately.

 

[VacationForever]

We did the same when we moved to AZ. The attorney looked it over, saw that I had a substantial amount as separate property (inheritance from dad's trust), and said we didn't need that because we'd been married for almost 50 years. WHAT??? That's not his decision. I knew DH resented that inheritance so I kept my mouth shut, and it makes no difference to our daily life or estate planning, but the attorney was out of line. It he thought that, he should have spoken to me privately.

This reminds me of the 2nd trust attorney we had. While she had verbiage for sole and separate property, she created one joint trust and moved all our accounts and homes into the joint trust. I was pretty upset as I had significant separate property which I wanted left to my son. We went to a 3rd trust attorney who fixed it with an addendum and created sole and separate property trustees and I was able to move my homes and financial accounts into a separate property trust.

 

[rapmarks]

last posts remind me of the last trust of my husband’s mother, she disenherited his brother unless he divorced his wife. So they got the divorce but stayed together. That was almost twenty years ago, still together and got his inheritance. Why the lawyer never mentioned that possibility I don’t know. And before you leap to the lawyers defense, that was the layers solution to make sure she never saw the money. Originally it was to be put in a trust.

 

[Panina]

If watching someone else handle the estate in a way you would question or that would bother you you need to stay executor. If you really do not care about the outcome and are ok with however things end up then say no.