Missouri Estate Planning Legal Questions

More information is needed. Under the circumstances, there may not have even been an estate to contest. Most married people hold title to their assets in joint names. Upon the death of one, everything belongs to the other. Under Michigan law, the children have no inherent right to receive anything, whether born in or out of wedlock. So even if you were able to prove paternity, it is likely that would not make any difference in terms of what you could receive. Given the passage of time, even if there WERE an estate that you could have made a claim against, you would not be able to do so, under the statute of limitations. I strongly suspect that you would not have had a claim, in the first place. Even if you would have 30 years ago, your mother's failure to advance your claims is almost certainly fatal to any current claim. You can check with the probate court to see if there was an estate ever opened for your father. If there was not, then you will have your answer.... Read More

I would suggest that you petition to become conservator for your mother. That is likely to be cheaper than a partition action. A partition action probably would not help since your mother is still alive and she has the life estate. Your sister is currently in control of things by way of the POA. The conservatorship will trump the POA.... Read More

You should be sharing the costs of these items with the other owners of the property. You should calculate all of these expenses and seek reimbursement from them. If they cannot reimburse you for these expenses then maybe you should sell the property and then recoup the amounts you have paid over the years from the proceeds before distributing the remaining proceeds to each sibling.... Read More

You need to pay off the loan or you risk losing everything. The lender is under no duty to accept late payments and can simply re-possess. Your best advice would be to get another loan to cover it, if you can, or put the balance on a credit card or something, so you do not lose the vehicle. Once it is paid off, assuming you are the sole next of kin, getting title transferred will not be a problem. If you have siblings, that will complicate things.... Read More

There are a couple of possibilities. Has it been a full year since your mother passed? If not you could retain counsel and open a probate estate, inventory the car and ultimately get an order of distribution which you could then take to the Department of Revenue and register the car in your name. If it's been more than a year you could could retain counsel and file an action in probate court to determine heir ship. Formal notice, etc. and a brief court hearing would be required. The court could then issue an order that the vehicle is yours and you would take this to the Department of Revenue to register the vehicle in your name. You might be able to use one of the abbreviated forms of "administration" (Small estate refusal of letters or creditors refusal of letters). You would also need an attorney to help you with this.... Read More

Go to the DMV website and pull the necessary forms to transfer ownership to you via Affidavit. See if you meet those requirements. This information is only intended to give general information in response to an inquiry. It does not establish an attorney client relationship. This response is only based upon the limited facts presented and is merely intended to assist you in determining if you should contact an attorney to provide you with legal advice.... Read More

The Power of Attorney document will specify when the POA will become effective. This generally immediately or the determination of one to two doctors. So, read the start of the POA for guidance. If the patient has the capacity to sign legal documents, the they them self can make any disclosure. If the patient has dementia, they likely do not have the capacity to sign any legal document.... Read More

What does the POA say? Does it say it only becomes effective if principal is incapacitated? Does it say how to determine when principal is incapacitated? Having dementia does not mean the principal is incapacitated "dementia" is a general term for a whole bunch of different diseases and conditions. I believe all of them are progressive; a person may be diagnosed with dementia (in some cases, it can't be formally diagnosed) but still have legal capacity for many years. At some point, the principal does not understand the legal nature of a transaction. At that point, the principal is incapacitated. If I'm the buyer, I only want a deed that is "bulletproof." I do not want to buy the possibility that seller's family comes back years later and asserts the deal was not valid. Therefore, I don't want a deed signed by a POA unless the principal is clearly incapacitated and the POA is clearly valid; I don't want a deed signed by the principal if there's any chance of a successful argument that he or she doesn't know what he or she is doing. So I'm not going to accept disclosures from the POA and a deed from the principal. The principal either understands the whole deal, or not. Another aspect is what the title company says. The title insurance policy may defend against the possibility that the grantor lacks capacity. If it does, the title insurer is going to be interested in this matter. Finally, a doctor's letter does not "prove dementia." It is the doctor's opinion that the principal has "dementia," (which, as I said, may be lots of different things). The doctor doesn't necessarily know whether the principal has capacity. If the doctor says the principal has dementia, then there is still the question of how advanced it is, and how complicated this transaction is, and whether the principal is understanding it.... Read More