Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Who is responsible to acquire all the information on the decedent�s estate in PA in Intestate Succession? If you hire a lawyer on your behalf because you feel your brother is hiding estate information of the brother who passed on (as to share less with you), does the lawyer work to find all the estate information? Or does one rely on the word of the alive brother?

How can one be assured all the estate information is included in probate? Is there a way to follow up and find this information out for yourself?


Asked on 12/09/10, 7:27 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

I do not understand your question. If there is no will, someone has to be the personal representative (called an administrator). Is there a court file? If so, its a public record. I assume this estate is in Pennsylvania. Go look at it. Your brother has to identify the heirs. Your brother also has to file an "inventory" with the court listing the property owned by the decedent. Has this been done or is it time to do this yet?

If something does not look right, I suggest you get a probate litigation attorney. If your brother really is concealing assets then he can be removed. However, you need to have more evidence than just your belief or a feeling.

I do not know what other work you expect an attorney to do. If you really believe that your brother is hiding assets, then the attorney can hire a private investigator to uncover such evidence. This will be expensive. You have to consider the level of assets that are at stake and the likelihood that an investigator will find evidence of wrongdoing.

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Answered on 1/12/11, 3:58 pm


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