Fraudulent Act by Executrix
My mother passed away in 2012, leaving a will that stipulated her assets were to be divided 50/50 between my sister and me. Her assets consisted of real estate, car, personal inventory. However, in 2007, she made me joint acct. holder with Rights of Survivorship on her bank accounts (savings, checking, CD and MoneyMarket), and we signed the Member Agreement. The Agreement clearly states that the ROS designation would mean that the funds in the accounts would not pass to her Estate upon her death, but would pass directly to the joint account holder as survivor/owner. Upon her death, I notified the bank and requested information concerning the status of her accounts. I was assured three different times by bank personnnel that the money was mine, according to the Member Agreement.
Although I had been named executrix in the will, I declined for personal reasons, and my sister as alternate was appointed. She immediately contested the ROS, first saying I coerced/exploited my mother into giving me the money, then she said that the will stipulated division of her assets, then she said Mom was incapacitated/incompetent at the time the contract was signed. She went to the bank with all of these accusations, showed them her document appointing her executrix and convinced them to release almost $8000 to the "Estate" (her), stating that there was no money for her to pay expenses of the estate. Later, the bank realized their mistake, replaced the money into the account and said they would recover the funds from the estate. There is no readily available cash in the estate and I don't know what my sister told them, but the bank has apologized and said they would not try to recover the money, they would take the loss.
My sister never mentioned that there were liquitable assets and from what I have always heard, those assets should be sold to pay expenses. However, now my sister has the $8000, has padded her expense list, sold the car and kept the proceeds for a total of $10,000 - to have a simple will probated. Now,she has demanded I give her more money for expenses. I have offered her $40K cash, said she can have all of the real estate (approx. value $100K), she declined my offer to give her all of Mom's personal inventory (clothes, furniture, etc.), took a $12K diamond ring, refuses to pay me half of the proceeds from the car, and has demanded she wants more money for expenses. I know for a fact, she has deliberately spent most of that money trying to build a case against me by getting all of Mom's doctors reports, doing research on elder abuse, etc. I was the one who took care of Mom, made sure she saw all 12 of her doctors on a regular basis, shopped and ironed, cleaned her apartment and did every thing for her. And now I get threatened with a lawsuit if I don't give in to my sister's demands.
I feel she is trying to extort money from me and I don't believe my attorney is really aware of how she is manipulating the situation. In my opinion, she has misrepresented the Estate to the bank, who has finally, after 8 months, given me written confirmation that they are honoring the ROS, although she is still insisting the agreement is invalid and says she can prove it. Right is right, and I haven't done anything she says I did. But I have been advised that a jury could take her side because I was arrested 30 years ago.
Isn't that something!? She's the one probably committing illegal or at least fraudulent acts, but I'm the one being punished for doing everything I could to help my mother. She didn't lift a finger to help.
So do you believe what she has done constitutes malfesance (sp). Or fraud?
