Just waiting for the next hearing. The judge gave them 45 days from September 15 to provide all of the documents from the trust and 1 year of POA documents. November 1 is on my calendar.

It'll be interesting to see what documentation is provided. Wonder what happens if what's provided is incomplete? What are the consequences for him providing something less than what the judge ordered?

Blood is thicker than water until money is involved. I'd be surprised if much is left but it's the principle of the situation. Keep up the pressure.

Monday is 45 days plus, and the subpoena requires an answer for ALL of the documents. I know we will not get all of the documents because their attorney said he is a bad record keeper. What I am really after is ALL of the banking records that I know they have and they have not forwarded to us. Monday is a big day for me.

Kick his ass, SeaBass!

Good luck!

The judge is going to break his gavel off in his arse if Mr attorney thinks that is an acceptable answer.

Good Luck man

How did it go on Monday?

There was no response to the subpoena....zero. I have a phone call appointment  with my attorney, however his email said their refusal to respond puts us in a pretty good position. Our first hearing last month was about the trustee refusing to comply with the trust and the state laws regarding disclosing ALL estate documents, financial disclosures, etc. It took me 19 months to get SOME of the documents. Last month the court issued a subpoena for ALL of the documents, and instead of answering letters from my attorney, they will have to answer to the court this time about their refusal to comply.

We have to have another hearing for contempt. Civil contempt of court in Virginia can result in a $250 per day fine. We will probably ask the court to remove him as the trustee for a breech of the trust. We were working towards that goal any way, but we would have to have had a hearing to show cause to remove him, but now he has refused to answer the court, so the judge can act on his own and remove him.

I am pretty sure the info that is not being provided will point to the missing million dollars.

My recommendation to you is to look at your estate documents and have a bank or lawyer become the trustee. We used a lawyer for my wife's parents estate and it was only about $2000. There are nights I cannot sleep. Hard to believe a family member would do this. Don't put your kids through this.

Lawyer, sure, if they're an unbiased 3rd party.

Bank, no way would I EVER leave a bank have that sort of power. My childhood neighbor (mid-90's now) had his bank help with trusts for him & his wife. Maybe it's because they wrote it as well, but once his wife died, the bank, acting as trustee over her trust, and contrary to the wishes of the husband and the beneficiaries (their 3 children) forced the property to be subdivided and the portion w/o the house was sold so cash could be distributed to the kids. The kids WANTED the land but didn't have the finances to purchase it from the trust when the bank forced the sale; the bank refused to pass the land directly to the beneficiaries. It was a messed up deal, they fought but ultimately lost. Screw bank-written, bank-managed trusts!

Wow. It's hard to believe there was no response at all. This thread has my interest, because when it was originally posted, I was a beneficiary of an estate where lots of shenanigans had also taken place by the power of attorney/trustee. They were the last person that any of us thought would try to take advantage of anyone. Luckily we were able to come to an agreement without going this far, and while I still think the main power of attorney pulled a lot of shady shit, it makes me think I was very very lucky that it didn't get as bad as what you're going through.

In my case it seemed like there was nothing we could do about the shady stuff they pulled other than let it go. They spent a lot of money prior to my relatives' death for a lot of stuff that they thought they'd inherit. For example, they knew they were getting the house as that was the only thing specified in the will as going to someone specific. Then everything else was supposed to be split 3 ways. It was supposed to be for taking care of her, although it turns out my uncle moved back and did equally as much as they did, if not more. So he kind of got screwed. I have no right to complain though as I'll admit, they both did a lot more than me. Well, since they knew they were getting the house, they had my relative spend a pretty large chunk of money remodeling the kitchen. She didn't care about a new kitchen until they talked to her into it. Then they used to brag about how she had never even turned the stove on. This wasn't too long before they put her in a nursing home. So now, the home they inherited was worth substantially more with a nice fancy kitchen that we basically all three paid for.

They also tried this on a cabin they thought they'd get. It needed some repairs. Since she trusted them to make the repairs, they spent significantly more of her money than necessary doing massive upgrades while doing the repairs. Thinking they'd inherit this too, they spent the money before it got split 3 ways and thought it would be in tip top shape when they got it. It didn't work out for them as the rest of wouldn't agree to let them have it. So now, we all three own it and they will barely speak to us.

The problem for us was that my relative was still alive at the time the money was spent and she agreed to it. She trusted them, and anything they told her she needed, she let them do without actually knowing or understanding what was going on. So we couldn't really do anything about it after the fact. In their mind, I really don't think they thought they did anything wrong and they feel like I'm the wrong for taking issue with it.

All in all, as frustrating as our situation was, I feel very lucky that ours wasn't nearly as bad as yours seems to be.


I don't know what the right thing to do in these situations is, but I tend to think you're probably correct. It's tough. As I said in my situation, the one that was in charge was the last person any of us would have expected to take advantage of anyone. In fact, the one I thought would be the most problematic ended up being the one that wanted to be the fairest and he did the right thing the whole way through it. I'll admit that I was wrong about what I expected of each person here, and I suspect my relative probably also had no idea of how things would go. It just goes to show you that you can't really know who is going to be the most trustworthy. People do crazy things for money. So ultimately, I suspect your right and that having an uninterested party be the one in charge here is probably the best choice.

See, this is where it's tough. I have a friend in a similar situation. Except for their mother had a lawyer create a trust that dictates the family farm is to be sold upon her death and the proceeds to be distributed to the kids. The problem is that the kids want the family farm, and not the cash. However, several of them don't have the cash to buy the property without the inheritance. It's a really unfortunate situation.

On the other hand, in my case, the will specified that most of the assets be split three ways. This was very easy with the remaining money, but it becomes really tough when it comes to real property. It just doesn't work. It seems like everyone ends up wanting the same property and it becomes a big family feud over who is getting what. One piece of property, we all three own now as we couldn't agree on who was going to end up with it. The rest of it ended up with a split that was finally agreed one, but a lot of hurt feelings followed. One of the parties still will barely talk to us. We no longer have family get togethers at the holidays, etc. I almost suspect that with the difficulty we had agreeing, if an outside party had been the trustee they would have just forced us to sell it all. Which would have sucked. However, I don't know what else you do. You just can't know who to trust in these situations.

I almost think the solution is for the person to just dictate who gets what specifically in the will. Then have a lawyer be the trustee, or executor that carries out those wishes. Then if the beneficiary doesn't like it, oh well. They can be mad at the now deceased instead of the other family members involved. You also don't have the executor embezzling money like in this case.

I am going to agree with this.  My grandparents left a trust for two of their children (not my mom, her two sibs were just awful with money and the parents knew it, so they got their inheritance in trust).  Long story short, the bank trustee invested everything into their own high-load mutual funds and took a 6% per year administration fee as well.  The bank actually made more from the trust each year than the beneficiaries and the trust was depleted within 20 years.

thats actually easy to believe. lawyer is likely telling the person to comply but dude cant/wont because they dont have records and may have even pissed all the money away so theyre judgment proof anyway. even more likely, lawyer has burned through the retainer and has asked for more money to continue the fight and aint getting shit.

Sorry you're having to go through this OP.

My attorney has been ignored by my brothers attorney. Don’t know the reason why and not willing to guess. My attorney is scheduling a Dec 22 hearing with the last judge and is issuing a subpoena to my brother. The big hammer is coming out this time. Asking for all of my attorney fees, contempt of court, removal of him as trustee, appoint me as the new trustee so I can get all of the records, and have him refund the value of the trust from his fraud. We are going to shotgun the case and see what sticks.

Best of Luck OP, give him Hell!

You know why, he's likely been in cahoots with your brother raiding the estate.

Thank you for keeping this updated. I just realized Ive been following this for going on 2 years and this kind of thing is a good topic for people to keep in mind when setting up their estate planning or dealing with something like this.

Given all the BS from your brother, I can't imagine why the judge would be anything but totally on board with you. Let's hope he is. Thanks for the updates.

A different question, but do you have any inkling your brother's attorney may not be playing straight or have some involvement?

see my post above. lawyer isnt responding because lawyer isnt getting paid. brother doesnt care any more because he's judgment proof.

i hope this works out for you but i've seen these cases before.

Not sure what you mean by not playing straight? If you mean involvement like being part of the fraud of my brother, then the answer is no. The attorney is a senior member of a big time firm, near retirement, and pretty sure that is not on the table to be part of the fraud. If money was offered under the table, pretty sure the answer would be to find another lawyer.

If the attorney is not being paid, that will come out soon. For an attorney to resign from the case, they have to announce that to the court and my attorney that they resigned. With a court date that is now set, they have to respond. They have to be there, or announce they have resigned from my client.

Not judgement proof. I have another route I can take if they have taken steps to look judgement proof. Keeping that card hidden in my deck of cards. They will be sorry big time if they try that.

My hearing has been delayed. Courts are backed up with criminal trials. We have been given 3 dates, 1 in Dec and 2 in Jan. All parties have to agree. I will keep you updated.

What did your brother do? Pay off the judge so he could spend every last dime or hide what is remaining?

This sounds like a mess. When my dad died he lived in Virginia and had an estate worth at or near $1 million. My brother was the executor and by sheer coincidence had been living in my dad’s basement for a couple of years at the time of his death. Did I mention that he went from prison to dad’s basement after serving 6 years for the production, distribution and financing of child pornography?!  

So dad made him the executor and by sheer coincidence, having daily access to my dad, he convinced him that he was “poor and destitute” and needed money.”  My brother wound up getting pretty much everything including 1/2 of the house, his wife, our stepmom, got the other half. What me and my sister got was way down at the bottom, “the remains and remnants”. He withheld the both the will and the inventory of the estate from both me and my sister, which at least in Virginia is illegal. In Virginia all named beneficiaries are supposed to be given, by the executor (my dirtbag brother) a copy of the will. I had to track it down through the courts, the same with the inventory of the estate.

If you’re curious just who my dirtbag brother is do a search for “C. Wayne Patty, Jr.”. He was living in Christiansburg, VA at the time of his conviction. 184 counts of the “production, distribution and financing of child pornography” one of them was a 3 year old. Personally I feel that life should have been a minimum sentence.

Finally have a court date Feb 9. Goal is to remove the trustee for breech of trust and appoint a new trustee, hopefully me. I have all of the evidence to get him removed. Asking for all of my current legal expenses and any new expenses. Keep you informed.

Thanks for the update, hopefully it turns out better than it seems.

No one will fuck you like family.

Money merely brings a person's true character to the surface, good or bad.

Unearned or windfall money like an inheritance is probably the most accurate trigger for revealing character.

Well, we finally have a hearing scheduled....today at noon. Ready to drop full evidence of fraud and lying on federal tax form to embezzle tax returns, and evidence he actually stole the funds. They had 45 days to answer the last hearing in Sept 15, and there has been no response. Will keep you informed. Federal and state fraud, both with signed with tax returns, both felonies.

Finally movement. Break it off, good luck!

thanks for the updates and good luck

It will be interesting to see if there is a criminal case filed eventually.

Bear in mind that while civil judgments can be wiped clean in a bankruptcy, criminal restitution can not.

You don't tend to get out of stealing money from wills declaring BK. Fraud and theft, if you are the executor will get you financially fooked. If a lawyer was involved in any of it, he's fooked also.

No OP. I guess hes either celebrating or plotting a murder.

It was a good and it was a bad day. We did not get the same judge for this hearing. This guy set aside 45 minutes to hear our argument, and most of our time was spent getting him up to date with what has happened. He did not have any time to listen to evidence. Brother was a no show and his attorney was present.

We snuck in the missing tax refunds and his attorney got a lump in his throat. They argued they were not aware the original judge issued orders to produce evidence, probably got lost in the office mail. They actually emailed my attorney an hour before today’s hearing some documents that were supposed to have delivered 3 1/2 months ago.

Pretty apparent today’s judge really did not want to hear this case. He told my attorney to write up new orders for delivery of evidence and he will sign them and give them 10 days to answer. The judge did not want to write the orders. What a justice system.

The documents we got right before our hearing are rather damming. He was stealing about half of my fathers income every month. Bought a car for over $45k.

I will update a little more tomorrow. I just mentally worn out right now.

Hang in there Eddie.

Thanks for the update.

thats normal. they usually rely on the party seeking relief to write an order.

Thanks. Learn something every day. I am auditing the documents we got right before the hearing. He needs to be in prison for fraud. Money is not evil, only the people that steal it are.

Has your attorney mentioned anything about filing a police report?  Or are you using the civil suit to dig up more evidence?

Not yet. The documents we received moments before our last hearing are amazing. I audited 2 years and added up expenses that were obviously not something a person living in memory/assisted living home would spend and found $129,000.00 one year and $39,000.00 another year. We are asking for more documents and then going to set up a deposition. Might go to police after that. Yes, we are digging for more evidence.

What a saga this is. it will be interesting to see the final conclusion and any advice you have to sum it all up. I think we all have learned from this thread