Location: Brooklyn NYC
My great aunt / godmother passed last week, and our family is trying to figure out how to pass her assets to my brother and I.
She has no kids, never was married. Died in her 90s and outlived all of her siblings. My mom and aunties are her next direct next or kin.
While she passed without a will (to our knowledge), my brother and I are her successors. She intended to leave everything for us, which has been agreed upon by everyone else in our family. We haven’t found any documents however mentioning anything regarding succession.
In terms of financial assets, my brother and I are listed as the beneficiaries. We have already contacted her bank, who split her funds between us after we send them the death certificate, which is still in process.
She also owned an apartment in a coop building. I believe the shares of it is worth more than $50,000, but I’m not certain. I’ve tried contacting the building prior to her funeral, but they refused to speak to me since I have not been designated as the executor/administrator of estate.
At the funeral, the person who arranged the funeral/burial services (non family, but close friend of hers) handed my brother and I the keys to her apartment and the physical title of the shares of the coop. She told me that I was to receive the deposit and funds to her residence, and to bring these documents to the coop building, who will get everything taken care of.
I’ve been doing a lot of research online trying to find the best course of action, seeing if I need to go to surrogates court, seeing if I’m even eligible to become an executor or if that would have to be my mom/aunts. I also have no idea how to find out the current value her coop since the building refused to talk to talk to me. It’s been pretty overwhelming tbh.
I guess my question is what type of lawyer I need to find in order to settle everything? Would it even be possible to for me to prevent the shares from going back to the state?
Any advice / help would be greatly appreciated