Location: Oklahoma and New York
I have relatively small family. My grandparents both passed away within a month of each other towards the end of 2015. They had two children, my mother and my uncle. My uncle had passed away in 2011. Upon my grandparent’s deaths, my mother was named the trustee and the beneficiaries were herself and my aunt, the spouse of my deceased uncle. My aunt has only one living child, my cousin. We are all very close.
My grandparents lived in Oklahoma, my mother (and I) lives in New York State and my aunt in another state. My grandparents had established a trust that owned their home, automobile, some stock and their checking and savings account were under the name of their trust as well. The will was filed with the probate court, my mother sold the home and the vehicle and deposited the money into the trust’s account.
Now that my mother is getting up in age I’m attempting to get her finances in order and that’s when it became clear to me that after the sale of house and car, not much had taken place. In late 2016 my aunt needed money for a home improvement project and my mother issued a check from the trust’s funds to her but that was the extent of any disbursement that took place. Now ten years later I’m finding out she’s been having the taxes done for the trust every year for a decade, there are still stock held in the trusts name as well as discovering there is stock that is still held in each of my grandparent’s names and still paying dividends quarterly into their account.
I ask my mother why she never handled any of this and her only response is that she had no clue what to do. This is all made more difficult since my mother is now having memory issues and has aphasia, which makes it difficult for her to speak and find words. I’m a little upset my grandparent’s attorney who prepared the trust, will and filed the probate that there was no follow up or direction. Thankfully the practice seems to still be in business so I can contact them if needed.
Obviously, no final accounting was filled with the probate court in Oklahoma. I’d like to get this all squared away but I have no clue where to start. I’m assuming I’ll have to start with an attorney in Oklahoma, I’m just not sure if it should be the one who handled everything initially or if I can contact someone else. I’m not worried about the other beneficiary complaining or challenging my mother’s standing as the trustee but I’m going to contact my aunt and cousin to let them both know what’s going on. I’d just like to get the stocks held in the trusts name and my grandparents’ names sold and the funds divided up and disbursed.
If you’ve got any advice on where to start with this I’d be immensely grateful.
I have copies of the original trust agreement, the amendment made after my uncle’s passing, my grandparents death certificates, durable power of attorney paperwork, the original probate paperwork signed by the court, statements for the checking and savings accounts and statements from the stocks held. Should I be hunting down anything else?