Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts

mother's wishes

Hi - my Mom died about 8 weeks ago. She had four children. She had cd's and stocks worth about $120K. She had a will and it states in the will that she wanted all her assets split between her four children. Unfortunately, she put my sister's name on the stocks and cds and my sister is joint owner. My sister says that all the money is hers and she does not want to split the funds between the four children. My Mom also had a car and my sister has taken that too and will not sell it and split the proceeds. She also had life insurance and I'm not sure how much there was in the policy. Do I have any recourse here? We all know that my Mom wanted everything to be split four ways and the only reason she put my sister's name on everything was that she was teh oldest and my Mom trusted her to do the right thing. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.


Asked on 1/03/07, 9:58 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
henry lebensbaum Law Offices of Henry Lebensbaum (978-749-3606)

Re: mother's wishes?

Promises to split property rarely overcome a will. Trust is often misplaced. Usually what regulates the property allocation is how the property is held. If the property was held in joint accounts or in joint names, then you have problems.

TO determine specifically what rights you have, you really need to provide me with more information.

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Answered on 1/03/07, 10:35 am


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