Hi All
We just received a crazy letter; icing on the cake of what has been a difficult process of dealing with the estate of my deceased dear dad. Here is the short version:
My dad invested in a real estate project that turned out to be a ponzi scheme. He passed before it was uncovered which allowed us to get all his principal back. A year later we heard the news and sighed in relief. We didn't think much more of it.
Fast forward to today - A letter arrives from appointed attorney representing the unsecured creditors trying to recover their investment. It is addressed to my fathers Trust which held all the assets and is asking for over 50K to be returned because it was over & above the original investment. Basically they are asking for all the interest he collected on his notes to be paid back.
The Trust has distributed all the money in his estate already and there is only about 5K remaining that we kept there in case of contingencies. Not nearly enough to cover their demand which apparently is exactly as the law states - they can legally go after these "avoidable transactions".
I am an executor on the trust but another brother is the one who put his social security number down when we set it up upon my fathers passing. His name is mentioned in the letter. He is the only one mentioned.
Trying to claw-back the estate distributions from the other beneficiaries (7 in total, one of which has passed and one is homeless) would be virtually impossible.
And this is just the last of the issues to arise in what has already been a painful, family splitting experience.
Has anyone dealt with anything like this? Who would ultimately be liable to repay the money? Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions would be more than welcome.
Thanks!
We just received a crazy letter; icing on the cake of what has been a difficult process of dealing with the estate of my deceased dear dad. Here is the short version:
My dad invested in a real estate project that turned out to be a ponzi scheme. He passed before it was uncovered which allowed us to get all his principal back. A year later we heard the news and sighed in relief. We didn't think much more of it.
Fast forward to today - A letter arrives from appointed attorney representing the unsecured creditors trying to recover their investment. It is addressed to my fathers Trust which held all the assets and is asking for over 50K to be returned because it was over & above the original investment. Basically they are asking for all the interest he collected on his notes to be paid back.
The Trust has distributed all the money in his estate already and there is only about 5K remaining that we kept there in case of contingencies. Not nearly enough to cover their demand which apparently is exactly as the law states - they can legally go after these "avoidable transactions".
I am an executor on the trust but another brother is the one who put his social security number down when we set it up upon my fathers passing. His name is mentioned in the letter. He is the only one mentioned.
Trying to claw-back the estate distributions from the other beneficiaries (7 in total, one of which has passed and one is homeless) would be virtually impossible.
And this is just the last of the issues to arise in what has already been a painful, family splitting experience.
Has anyone dealt with anything like this? Who would ultimately be liable to repay the money? Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions would be more than welcome.
Thanks!