Location: Vermont, USA
I know this subreddit is for simple legal issues and this one is a bit complicated but I’m not sure where else to go from here. My (32 F) grandfather passed away in 2018. I was out of state at the time, but was informed by my mother that he had died.
My aunt was named executor in his will, as were two of the younger sisters. She (Aunt1) told my mother and her siblings that there was a reverse mortgage on their father’s house and they needed to get whatever they wanted from the house because the bank was going to take it. She also told them that there was nothing else, that he was in so mich debt there was nothing left behind. She signed a refusal of executorship, as did the next aunt in rotation, and a lawyer became the executor.
The first thing he did was auction their father’s house off for a small fraction of its appraised worth at the time. The sale failed because he could not get a clean title. We have recently found out that the reverse mortgage company was supposed to contact the executor of the estate 30 days after my grandfather’s death to arrange for family members to have a chance to retain the house by paying a mortgage payment.
My grandfather’s will was not made available to any us, but upon discovering the misinformation we had been given, my mother had me go and get it, as well as any other paperwork in the probate. We found out that I was listed in the will as one of the heirs. I have never been contacted by either of the executors.
Upon reading the will, we found that there were supposed to be trusts set up for myself and my mother. The will also told us which bank where they were supposed to be in. My mother called the bank and the banker she spoke to said that unless she had executorship, she [the banker] could not discuss my grandfather’s affairs there and very strongly urged us to get executorship. I am applying because I was named in the will but never contacted about anything to do with the estate and as such am the only one who has not signed away my rights to potential executorship. After contacting another bank about the trusts that was listed as a trusted third party in the will, I was told that it would be an EXTREMELY good idea to get an attorney and come back for more info, but she could not say anything else on the matter.
We also found out that there were contingencies in place in the will to try to keep the house in the family wherever possible; my grandfather wa extremely meticulous about his funds and his affairs and keeping everything organized and paid up to date.I am still looking for an attorney to help, but it seems like everyone I run into is looking at the surface info and either writing it off as a lost cause because it looks like the estate was in debt, or referring us elsewhere, or asking for an extremely high retainer just to start looking. We have even looked into the state bar association for assistance and come up empty handed.
Any help or advice is appreciated.