Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: Estate Closing

Request copies of the decedent's final income tax return, all estate income tax returns filed (1041), and the estate's final acocunting (as it will be submitted to the applicable surrogate's court). With these documents, you should be able to determine what assets were included in the estate, what expenses were paid out of the estate, what interest or other other revunues were generated during probate, and what your share should be.

Yes, a decendent's final income tax return (1040) and estate income tax returns (1041) should have been filed.

If you are nervous about protecting yourself, you may want to retain an attorney to represent your interests. Feel free to contact my office for a free consultation.

Re: Estate Closing

To close an estate, a Release and Refunding Bond is required from the people entitled to a share of the estate. Before you sign any document, you have the right to a full and complete accounting from the excutrix, whose duty to provide you with the accounting is called a fiduciary duty. This is above and beyond the normal duty owned in any relationship. You also have the right to look at any income tax returns and any death tax returns (inheritance or estate taxes). Every penny in the estate has to be accounted for. If the siblings got everything but joint assets, this would also include personal property owned by your father. With an estate of only $200,000, two years to complete probate and all that would be required seems like a long time, since income and death tax returns would only require 9-12 months to be filed. Allow a few months more for review and processing, and the estate should have been completed in about a year or so, but not 2 years, unless there were some complicated assets involved (like a business). When reviewing income tax returns, try to find out what assets were joint and what were individually owned, so you can trace assets from the return to the accounting. If you need help, please contact me directly.