Aunt died before signing Waiver of Fee

[lostnbondland]

Hi,

My mom passed away 2-11-04 and had a will (not Living Trust). Years ago due to a nightmare divorce her atty advised removing my name from house, ckg etc. So my deceased father's sister was choosen as executor. Right before my mom turned critically ill - she spoke with her sister-in-law (executor) who was due to have major surgery and had concerns about being able to adminster the estate and my mom's sister who lives in Oregon offered. Before I forget, my father's sister, my mother and myself are Calif residents.

Anyway, the change in executor occurred after my mother died. All was well and fine and I was grateful to my aunt taking on the duties as having lost my father and two sisters and then my mom - I was totally in a fog.

A year goes by and all the acctg had been completed with the exception of the 2003 Income Taxes being filed and signed by my aunt and the form waiving the Administrator or Executor Fee. Which I told my aunt she was entitled to and she would not hear of it and verbally told the atty and myself she would waive the fee. This brings us up to March 2005 (mom passed away Feb. 2004) then my aunt unexpectedly dies. (March 15, 2005)

My cousins who have more money than they know what to do with are now saying their mother never mentioned anything about waiving the fee to them. That got me to thinking- in my fog I recall signing some forms and I am now wondering if one of those was a waiver for a surety bond that could or would have been required of my aunt as executor (see and you were wondering why I was posting to this forum huh ).

With my aunts passing prior to the completion of probate and my greedy cousins now jumping into the picture and if the atty handling the probate ever bothers to request a new court date to have me appointed as the new executor (and I am sole heir) where at this point of this nightmare does or would a bond play a part???

I have made calls to the attorney but she always passes my calls off to her paralegal and in the past year she has lost two paralegals and is now on #3 and is brand new. Needless to say I'm frustrated, so here I am.

Thank you for your time and assistance and my apologies if I posted to the inappropriate forum/area.

i just saw your message as i was searching somewhat desperately for something, ANYTHING regarding what a performance bond is, and what fees apply for an executrix/administrator who was a close neighbor and friend to the deceased, who was named to be the personal representative, but who passed away before the will was signed. I am going through court process now, and have been told by the atty that the paperwork looks good, and to start the process of cataloging, and contacting all the different bill collectors. this has been a long and drawn out process, over 4 months so far, just to get her remains cremated. anyway, if you could email me with any advice that would be great. i feel weird looking into a fee for administrative things, which, before this happened i would have said a friend does out of the goodness of her heart, but honestly, i'm exhausted. people keep asking me if an amount was provided in the will for the work i'm doing, which is a huge amount, with upkeep of the home, dealing with all the creeps that are crawling out of the woodwork, and upfronting the atty fees, court costs, etc... anyway, i guess what i'm saying is i'm wondering if or when it is appropriate for an amount to be charged to the estate for services of this nature?

thanks for your input,
overwhelmed

[Surety Guy]

lostnbondland, the courts would require the bond of you. Unfortunately, I can not assist you with knowing whether one will be required or not. This would be a question best answered by your attorney.

overwhelmed, I am sorry to hear about your loss, but we only write the bonds and do not have our hands in the other side of it. I would think this is somewhat of a common question though, try doing a Google search on it, I am sure you can find your answer somewhere. (I took your email address out of your post so you do not receive large amounts of spam.)

Best of luck to the both of you.

[lostnbondland]

Hi and thank you for answering or trying to answer my first question. I am now wondering if a bond is always required for a probate case/executor and is the purpose of the bond similar in meaning to ...say, insurance we get for our cars/house etc? Also, the amt of the bond i'm guessing is determined by the estate value? and if so, what percentage does one have to come up with ?

Am I making any sense, I hope? It's hard to ask questions when you don't know enough to know what questions to have or ask.

Once again, thank you for your time and assistance.

Lin

[lostnbondland]

Can a surety bond be waived as in a probate case and if so, such as in the case I posted with my mom and aunt being out of state executor - would I be the one to waive aunt having to post a surity bond and then the judge would agree or not ? or can they ever be waived ?


thanks again,


lin

[Surety Guy]

Surety bonding and insurance are not the same. Your best bet is to read more about it in our Surety Bond Information Section. It will help you to get a beter grasp on what bonds are and why they are required.

The judge will decide if a bond is required or not, unfortunately it is not a decision you can make.