Cherry Plain, NY Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

Write a will. See an attorney. However, even if you leave all your assets in your name, and plan distribution through your will, your wife has certain elections, (money due her) that takes priority over the other transfers. So, even if you left all to your children, your wife could elect to invade those assets first, up to a certain statutory amount. Better choice, put your children?s names on the assets, as designated beneficiaries, and then there will not be a probate estate to argue about.

You say your brother "entered your mom's estate. Does that mean he has filed for administration of the estate with the probate court? If yes, then the court proceeding will say what your mother owned, and there will be an accounting of how it is expended. If you know of specific assets that aren't included in the probate filing, you can raise that issue with the court. I'm sorry to say that it may well not be true "there is no way everything is gone." Many, many Americans now exhaust their entire estate paying for health care and long term care at the ends of their lives.