Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Wisconsin

My deceased father had a will. A family member was the administrator of the estate. The assets were distributed but the administrator never gave an accounting of what our father actually had and what he as administrator took for administering the estate. When asked by another family member, he was told he took the maximum the law allows and did not need to disclose any more information than that. He would not discuss it further. By law was he required to provide the family with financial accounting of the estate?


Asked on 10/24/13, 8:16 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Thomas Schober Schober Schober & Mitchell, S.C.

Presuming that when you mention "a family member was the administrator of the estate" you mean a court proceeding took place, then there would be two documents in the court's file that you might want to review. The first is the Inventory, which should list everything your father had at his death. The second is a Final Account, which should show the inventory value, all additions, all expenses (including the personal representative's fees) and distributions. If you were an heir, you would have also signed a Waiver that indicates you were ok with what was occurring.

Since there are simplified procedures if an estate is less than $50,000, the above will not hold true in all cases. The same happens if your dad used a trust.

Good luck!

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Answered on 10/24/13, 8:21 am


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