Unfortunate choice of executor
 

My grandson's mother lost her father about 10 years ago. He was not even 50, so it was a surprise. Her uncle, the brother of the dad, sort of sold off the dad's stuff without talking to the daughter. She found out about it when she went by his place and found him having a garage sale. She starts looking at a table, to buy, when she figures out it is her dad's stuff. She called him on it, and he did not speak to her for 5 years.

About 2 months ago her grandmother, his mother, passed away. He is the executor, and has been very evasive about what is going on, has not provided a copy of the will until the last possible moment, like when he is legally compelled to do so. He denied that there was an inventory of the estate, which I think may be legally required, too.
He did give her a picture of a list of stuff she is supposed to get, including jewelry. The grandmother specifically told her she was to get certain items. Items the executor has apparently given to his kids. Fairly certain that is criminal, felonious depending on the value.

I am sort of wondering who it is you report this stuff to in California. I guess to the Superior Court or something, it is all pretty sad. I suspect the IRS might be interested as well. I am pretty sure there will be a couple of y'all who have been through this sort of thing and have a bit of insight.

AFAIK , without a Will the executor is free to settle the estate as they wish.

She needs to file a civil suit against her Uncle for fraud. There is NO criminal case for f***ed up family.

My SIL was the executor of my FIL's trust. Since my wife was adopted, evil sister says she wasn't ever kin. She embezzled over $2M from him. I sued her and got dime on the dollar back.

Made sure everyone in her home town knew of what she did via the judgement and a legal notice in the local paper.

Hearing her screaming on the phone about ME was priceless.

Her house burned up in the 2019 Lava flows on the Big Island, so God does work in strange ways

You can bring a legal action against the executor, or object to the accounting. Not really a mechanism to "report" misconduct, but if a court finds misconduct there are sanctions available.

Lawyer up and fast.

My very very good friend had her sister do this to her. Stole everything. I think if my friend had been more proactive and aggressive it would have resolved more equitably.

I hate these stories.

I have been the Executor on two Wills, deaths, and made sure I discussed the wishes expressed in the Will in detail, then followed those wishes to the letter. My Dad and I actually had a ball going through the Will and Estate details. He was quite clear on how he wanted me to proceed on (upon?) his death.

It is a really interesting journey if done right.

I am the Executor on a friends Will/Estate: Lots of money involved and he was a bit coy on the details. I told him to get someone else. If you are going to stiff your youngest sister, you make it clear, not me. I have never met her.

We have worked it out.

So, advice: I have none. The legal systems is a glacier where these cases are concerned and estate/other lawyers, have a number of tools at their disposal to drag things out.

It took me five years to settle my step-father in-laws Estate and Will even though both were explicit. My wife carried the days with details and spreadsheets that even amazed the SFILs no account son.

The son was a sack of hammers.

I wish you well but I do not know Cali rules and regs at all.

Choose well, my friends, the Executor.

not much use now for OP but this is why you have proper paperwork done.

If you have anything of even moderate value it's worth the few bucks to have an attorney draft all the proper papers

my kids will never have to deal with this

we have a carve out to cover lawyers, accountants and our financial advisors fees if they are ever needed

we even went so far as to put everything into blood trusts so that any spouses that may outlast them can't pull any shenanigan's

In NJ I believe this is all handled by probate courts. Does such a thing not exist in California?

Fortunately I haven’t had to deal with this other than my will which is very simple.

Yep, lots of people pull BS in these situations.

It sounds like your grandson's mother needs to consult a lawyer that specializes in this sort of thing.

My wife has a sister and half sister. The half sister's father left stuff to all 3 girls in his will, but made his biological daughter the executor. My wife ended up getting a lawyer because she was being a POS. It turned out well, but if we'd waited much longer, there wouldn't have been enough of the estate left for the other two sisters to get their cut. The executor sister was blowing through the estate.

She needs to engage a lawyer.

Karma's a righteous beyotch, at least in that case.
EXACTLY!

Not my area of specialty so not intended as legal advice and I'm not licensed in California. Sorry but have to say it.

I'm not overly concerned about timing of giving copy of will. If there is a time limit then really any disclosure before that time expires is ok.

State specific on whether executor must provide inventory but usually it is controlled by the terms of the will and whether state law requires or leaves it up to the testator (deceased). But also usually if inventory is required it is for the probate court and not necessarily for the beneficiaries.

If Granny orally said, "this is yours when I die", most likely that has no real bearing. Otherwise anyone could come forward and make such claims. See next para though.

Executors are given wide latitude in closing out estates but must act within the bounds of law, the will (desires of the deceased as written out), and court instruction. A will may have specific bequests that is giving specific things to specific people, ie my Rolex Submariner serial 1234356 to my granddaughter MaryBeth Sims. Then ususally instructions on how divide up everything remaining to the listed beneficiaries or their hiers (which is when it can get complicated) like my 3 kids but if one of them dies then to his kids.

Then there is the large pool of everything else (the residual estate) and the executor is left to determine how to give it away or sell it. If sold then the $$$ goes in pot for remaining beneficiaries. IF his kids are not beneficiaries and he is giving them stuff the legitimate beneficiaries have a claim against him, which could be in his personal capacity. In other words, he could be forced by the court to pay for that out of pocket. Alternatively, if he is giving stuff to his kids then the court could deterimine that such was his share.

Legal counsel is certainly needed. You could file motion with court, or other pleading claiming he is not following the terms of the will or distributing properly, or managing poorly or illegally. If there is no requirement for an inventory, whether state law or by terms of the will, that could be ordered by the court if evidence is shown that he is not properly executing his duty and giving stuff to whomever he pleases.

Tread lightly. It is no coincidence that probate cases are Smith vs Smith. Meaning that this leads to bad blood usually.

Edit: if he is an attorney then I would certainly report to the State Bar once a court determines he is acting inappropriately.

I think the best wills have stipulations that if challenged they're out. Gross misconduct aside. That has kept a lot of people in my family happy.

^^^^^My parents did exactly that, largely because of my next older brother

There wouldn't be an executor without a will. If a perso dies intestate (without a will) the state settles the estate.

No, I'm not buying that. I'm certain it's more like there wouldn't be an executor without a will but if a person dies intestate (without a will) you can bet the court where the person resided would seek out a person that would be termed an "Administrator" of the decedent's estate so that the estate could be handled according to the laws of decedents resident State.

This is correct. Usually upon application of the person who seeks to be the administrator, and after time for others to object.

When my dad died in 2005, I was the executor of his estate, which wasn't very big. Will basically said everything gets split between me and my sister. It was a good thing I was the executor, since I went to Atlanta at least once a year anyway whereas my sister basically never goes east of Denver. It was a ton of work to settle everything but there wasn't really any argument about who got what - fortunately that part was easy. Ultimately it was up to me since I was the one actually going there and doing ****, but I love my sister and I'm not a dick. When my mom visited recently she told me that she had created a trust so that I didn't have to do that all over again when she died (and we both know we couldn't count on my sister to do it.) When she laid it out for me I agreed with her - this seems like by far the cleanest way to handle things. It basically runs itself once the person dies.

In California, the state steps in and everything ends up in Probate court with the possibility of 2 years down the road a court date will be set. Probate costs are about 20% of the estate as an average as I recall.

This story has a lesson in it.
My brother died with no Living Trust/Will and Health Directive.
Our family decided I will be the Administer of the Estate.

I was given a Probate Court date because it is now the judge's call on how everything gets
divided up. It took 18 months of waiting and people started coming out of the woodwork contesting
my wishes. Even handwritten (halogram) requests (wills) written out by my brother. Luckily for my family, none of the faux wills were dated. In Calif., no notary or witnesses are always required.
Long story, short......
Get a estate lawyer to make you a Living Trust and Will. Without that 3 ring binder, full of legal directives..... Someone will suffer big time for a long time.

Since I own real property in California and my fear is Prop 13 will suddenly be changed, I created a family trust to hold all the properties. My Daughter the RN is my Advanced Health Care Directive (AHCD) person in charge and the trust executor. I can die tomorrow and everything is cool.

In Cali if the property is NOT in a trust, per Prop 13, it will get reassessed for property taxes based on current market value at the date of the death.