Changing attorneys when handling an estate

[KB]

My Father just passed away last week and I am the executor of his estate, and also a Trustee on his two financial accounts. I do not live in the county where he lived, so the attorney who wrote the trust and settled my Mothers estate 4 years ago is not convenient to me since he is where my Dad lived. It's only a 3 hors drive though....

My parents had an AB trust. The B (Mom's) trust has not been distributed so will be part of what I am distributing when the time comes.

My questions is whether it would be smarter to stick with the attorney that wrote the trust and settled my Mom's part of the trust or take it all to an attorney closer to me. I'm not sure how long it would take for a new attorney to get familiar with all the details they need to advise me.

If anyone has thoughts on this, I would appreciate them. Thanks.

 

[meierlde]

My Father just passed away last week and I am the executor of his estate, and also a Trustee on his two financial accounts. I do not live in the county where he lived, so the attorney who wrote the trust and settled my Mothers estate 4 years ago is not convenient to me since he is where my Dad lived. It's only a 3 hors drive though....

My parents had an AB trust. The B (Mom's) trust has not been distributed so will be part of what I am distributing when the time comes.

My questions is whether it would be smarter to stick with the attorney that wrote the trust and settled my Mom's part of the trust or take it all to an attorney closer to me. I'm not sure how long it would take for a new attorney to get familiar with all the details they need to advise me.

If anyone has thoughts on this, I would appreciate them. Thanks.

Recall that the estate probate will have to be done in the county where your dad lived. So a local attorney may know better how things in the local probate court are handled. How much face to face is really needed. In my parents case it was perhaps 2-3 meetings in total. The attorney handled the court appearance etc. (Since I lived 5 hours away). Most of the rest could be handled by phone and by forwarding documents as needed.

 

[KB]

Since it is a trust, it will not need to be probated, but that is a good suggestion about different county requirements. It is in the same state, just a different county.

 

[MichaelB]

Trusts are not subject to probate. Will the trust now be closed and all the assets distributed? If so, the trustee doesn't really need an attorney for anything. The attorney who wrote the trust should answer simple questions about the trust without charge (my experience).

Probate is only needed if there are assets outside the trust. In that case, any qualified probate attorney will do, but agree with meierlde that a local is a better choice, and you don't need to be there.

 

[OldShooter]

What difference does it make that he is not close to you?

 

[Bamaman]

If you really get down to it, probate is where a judge gives you the executor the authority to sign for the deceased in financial matfers. Of course the probate court will want to make sure all creditors have been paid and especially that all local, state and federal taxes have been paid. If there is any real estate to be transferred or liquidated and there is no living spouse, many estates then require going through probate.

I had to probate my mother's estate only because of a lake house I inherited. We had to probate an aunt's estate (with no real estate) because of an investment partnership, and we negotiated a buyout with other partners. I just prefer to keep probate matters as simple as possible.

 

[Amethyst]

I think the local atty would be the first to tell you if he/she actually needed you there. Worth a phone call to find out. I would not change attys unless you dislike/mistrust the local one.

 

[Texas Proud]

I would vote to keep the attorney since I would assume the plan is to liquidate... why pay someone else to get up to speed on something that is going away soon...


You might never actually need to be in front of him/her to get the job done...

 

[KB]

Thanks for all the responses. I will contact the existing attorney and see what he suggests.

 

[audreyh1]

Sounds like the trust is independent of executor duties. So you don’t necessarily need to use the same attorney for both?