I Hired Legal Representation

As some of you may know, my father Howard and stepmother Carol put their estate in a trust in 1996. My father's house and Carol's house went into the trust.

Logically, Carol's house was to go to her children............ and my dad's house to his children (Bruce, Joy, and me).

Here's the first complication: My dad and Carol were living in his house, and she wanted to keep living there if he died first. However, since my dad had nothing to pass on to his children except the house, he did a will giving the house to his kids immediately upon his death.

Carol didn't like that. She berated him so she had more time in the house after his death. Dad gave in and extended the time.

This happened two or three or four more times until Dad caved in totally and gave Carol life tenancy... so she would be trustee of the estate and live in the house until she died.

In December of 1999, Carol executed a grant deed to change ownership of my father's house
from her and him
to her only... without his signature.

As trustee, Carol is required to act in the interests of the beneficiaries, including Bruce, Joy, and me. Mortgaging our father's house was not in our best interests. The trust says that HE owned the property as trustee; the trust does not give ownership to her, even as trustee.

However, within days of the grant-deed fraud, she took out a $40,000 mortgage on my dad's house.... embezzling $40,000 from Bruce and me (Joy had passed away in February of 1999). I've been told by a realtor that Bruce and I would have to pay off any mortgage on the property if we inherited it.

Dad died on February 15, 2000.

When I told Carol I had found out about the mortgage she took out, she asked how I had found out, I told her, and that's the last time she has been willing to have any contact with me or Bruce.

She's behind on the property taxes, and I fear that the state will confiscate the house because she is not paying the taxes.

So I just want to make sure that our father's house goes to me and Bruce when Carol dies. I hate to spend thousands on a lawyer to make sure that happens, but I want to be sure.

Sigh. Sometimes, stepmothers really are evil.

My new lawyer wanted me to get him copies of relevant paperwork. I started making piles on the floor of my study. Lots of paper. I did organize the trust and relevant documents into a 3-ring binder... maybe my first step would be to take that to a copyshop and make a copy.

I could even put miscellaneous pages in a folder and send those along too.

That would be a good start.

I fear that the trust gives Carol too much power... but it also forces her to do things she has not done, and one of those things was making me a trustee after Dad died.

I fear I will lose this gamble, but I think I should try. Risking $4,000 or so is not stupid if the payoff was over $300,000.