Georgia Probate Legal Questions

I will need a lot more information to know if your brother is mistreating you.  However, an executor is required to do exactly what the will requires him to do.  To the extent he is not doing that, you can file a Petition for Settlement of Accounts and require him to report to the judge what he is doing and why he has not paid you the inheritance you are due.  You should contact a lawyer to assist you with this problem.  It is not as straightforward as it seems.... Read More

Your question does not actually specifically name any kind of application, and it's not clear from your post exactly what your friend may need to do. However, if he is a child (or another kind of relative) of a person who died owning land in Georgia, then he likely needs to figure out what to do with the estate. If he is incarcerated, he likely won't be able to handle the estate himself. Whether or not you will be able to do anything on his behalf is an open question. Unfortunately, this forum is not intended for anyone to be able to provide actual legal help or advice. You, on behal of your friend, need to contact an attorney who handles probate matters in the Monroe, Georgia area (not all probate attorneys work in all counties) and get a consultation. After asking more questions and gathering more information, the attorney can then help you figure out what can, should, or must be done to help your friend. But there's no way to know what is needed without a lot more information than you can or should be posting online in a public forum. Best wishes to you and your friend.... Read More

Best wishes on your marriage! If you decide to change your name, then yes, you will need to change your driver's license and your Social Security card information to reflect the correct name. You will generally need a certified copy of your marriage license for that, along with a certified copy of your birth certificate. Here is a link to the Social Security information about changing your name: https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-01981 Here is a link to information about how to change your name on a Georgia driver's license: https://dds.georgia.gov/georgia-licenseid/general-license-topics/real-id  ... Read More

Help the Conservatee write a letter to the court detailing the abuse and asking that the Conservator be removed. Consider applying to remove and substitute for the Conservator.  For this, you will need to be represented by a guardianship attorney.  You may find one experienced in working with people with autism using the Find a Lawyer function on the website of the National Academy of Elder and Special Needs Law Attorneys (www.naela.org)... Read More

I am sorry to hear about your father's condition. As for your question, it can be legal for a person with a dementia or Alzheimer's diagnosis to sign a power of attorney, and the resulting power of attorney can be perfectly valid. So much depends on the actual facts and circumstances that it would not be possible for anyone in this forum to tell you whether the power of attorney your father signed is actually valid, or whether he signed it of his own free Will. In order to sign a power of attorney ("POA") in Georgia, the person who is signing it (the 'Principal"), needs to understand, at the time he signs, what he is signing and what the document does. This requires a relatively high degree of cognitive capacity; however, it is possible that someone could have a dementia diagnosis and still be competent to sign a POA for a while after receiving that diagnosis. It is also possible that someone could have the required degree of capacity to sign a POA at the time the POA was signed, and to have signed it voluntarily, but to later forget what he did and why. In order to know whether the POA your father signed was valid, and whether he signed it willingly or whether your mother was effectively forcing him to sign something he did not want to sign, I would generally need to have met your father at the time he signed the POA and to have more knowledge about his mental state. Hopefully, your mother and he went to an experienced, ethical estate planning or elder law attorney, and that attorney met with your father, determined that he was likely competent to sign the POA and was doing it of his own free will, and then prepared it and helped him sign it. That said, if you think that it is unlikely that your father could have been competent to sign the POA at the time he signed it, or if you think that your mother is abusing him financially or otherwise misusing the POA (even if it was valid when it was signed), then you may want to consult an elder law attorney who specializes in guardianships and conservatorships, especially contested ones. The attorney can then learn more from you about the whole situation and give you advice on what steps, if any, you may be able to take to help make sure that your father is being properly cared for.... Read More

I'm sorry, but this is not a probate question. It appears to be a probation question, which is a very different area of law. I don't deal with probation issues and don't know how to answer you. Please try to post your question again using Probation or Criminal Law as the topic list. Best wishes to you.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your wife. If she had no debts, if she did not have a Will, and if you and her adult child are the only heirs, then you may be able to use a Petition for No Administration Necessary to settle her estate without a full administration.If she has debts, and even if she has a Will, you might also be able to file a Petition for Year's Support and request that the entire estate be awarded to you- again without a full administration. Depending on how the properties were titled, what other assets or debts she had, and whether or not she had a Will, you might not even need to do anything with the probate court. However, no one is going to be able to tell you what you actually can or should do in this kind of forum. Please find an experienced probate attorney near you and schedule a consultation. The attorney can then review all relevant info rmation and discuss your available options with you, and can then help you move forward. Best wishes to you.  ... Read More

It does not sound as if any income tax returns or estate tax returns would be due yet, given the timeline you lay out in your post. An estate tax return, if one is due at all (it may not be necessary) is not due until 9 months after the date of death. An income tax return would not be due until roughly 3 1/2 months after the final day of the estate's income tax year, and an estate can use a fiscal year that ends on a date other than December 31, which means that if death occurred in December 2020 the estate's first income tax year could end as late as November 30, 2021. All that said, a successor Executor needs to get appointed for the estate. The successor Executor will then need to file any needed tax returns for the estate and for the decedent (whose 2020 income tax return will be due by April 15, 2021 if no due date extension is requested, but if you can't get an Executor appointed more quickly than that the return will have to wait until the Executor has been appointed.   No one has the authority to file a return for the decedent or for her estate until a successor Executor is appointed. The fiduciary for the deceased Executor does not have the authority to act with regard to any other estates.... Read More

If you cannot find the original will, the law assumes it was revoked. To probate a copy of a will, you gave to explain to the court what probably happened to the original and how you know the deceased person did not revoke it. You probably need to hire a lawyer to help with this complicated area of law. Look for an attorney specializing in probate law.... Read More

Depending in how the brother has his name on the property,  there may be nothing you can do. You need a lawyer experiences in estate planning and probate administration to assist you. If the land was given to the brother on some condition thst it be divided,  you might be able to establish a constructive trust. The entire solution revolves around the deed he has came to be. ... Read More

Please accept my condolences on your loss. Unfortunately, you will likely need to open the estate, since the check was made out to the estate and not to your mother directly. Since your mother died with no Will, you MAY be able to get the bank on which the check was drawn (the insurance company's bank) to cash the check, if you present the affidavit discussed in O.C.G.A. § 7-1-239.1. (Payment of checks or instruments payable to deceased intestate persons; affidavit included with application for payment." GA. Code 7-1-239.1 Payment of checks or instruments payable to deceased intestate persons; affidavit included with application for payment), but it's not guaranteed to work. All of her children would need to endorse the check and provide the affidavit. If there are any other items in the estate, however, such as real estate, then you may need to open the estate for administration anyhow. Best wishes to you.... Read More

If you plan to transfer the hosue into your name, you will need to probate the will.  You will not be required to refinance the hoseu if you do not want to.  All wills must be filed witht the probate court.  Whther you offer it for probate is up to you. Howver, because there is real estate, the only way to tranfer that property is to file the will for probate.... Read More

This is a very delicate situation.  Until you have Letters of Administration, you have no right to enter the hosue.  I assume the girlfried lived with your father.  That makes her a tenant and in sole possessoin fo the property until a court says she isn't in possession any longer.  Until there is an administrtor, no one has the right to evict the girlfriend. ... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your wife. As for your question, whether you would need to have opened your wife's estate for administration and probated her Will in order to get the title to your home into your sole name is not something that can be answered in this kind of context.Anyone who tries to answer will need to see the actual deed for your home before they would know whether your wife had an interest in the house or whether, if she did, that interest became part of her estate. If her interest became part of her estate, we also would need to know whether you were the only heir or whether there were other heirs, and whether or not she had a Will. Have an attorney review these things for you. Best wishes to you.... Read More

If you are talking about trying to file a Petition for Discharge of Personal Representative and there are heirs who do not want to consent to that Petition, file it without them. They will be given notice by the court and given a period of time in which to file their objections, if they want to try to make any. If they don't successfully object, eventually the court will issue the order discharging you, assuming everything else is in order.... Read More

I can't tell from your question exactly what the situation is, but I assume your mother has recently passed away and that you're now trying to find her original Will. If that assumption is correct, then please accept my condolences on your loss. In Georgia, Wills are not generally recorded anywhere until after the Will creators die. If you can contact the firm that prepared your mother's Will, then they may either have the original or have some information on where she planned to keep it. It is also possible (I have no idea whether it is also likely) that her original Will was filed with the county where she lived for safekeeping. To find out, you can call the Probate Court of the county where she had her principal residence at the time the Will was prepared, and you can tell them that she has passed on and that you are trying to locate her original Will and need to know whether they have her original Will held for safekeeping. Be very sure to use the exact term "safekeeping," because Wills held for safekeeping for people who were living when their Wills were given to the probate court may not be stored in the same place that Wills that have been filed after peoples' deaths are kept. If they have an original Will on file for your mother, they will tell you how to go about getting it from them or getting a copy of it. If they don't have the original for safekeeping, then the next step willl be to look through all of her possessions. It could be in a safe deposit box at the bank, it could be held in a desk drawer or file cabinet, it could be behind the water heater, it could be in a laundry basket or a closet- you'll need to search. Best wishes to you.... Read More

I am sorry to hear about your troubles, but unfortunately your question was accidentally marked as a probate question instead of a probation question. Probate, which is part of what I do, deals with Wills and estates of deceased people. I don't work in the criminal law or probate areas and have no idea how to answer your question. Please try reposting your question using a probation topic, or perhaps a criminal defense or criminal law topic. Better yet, find an experienced criminal defense attorney and call them for help with your case, since it sounds like timing may be a concern. Best wishes to you. I hope you are able to get a good result.... Read More

I am sorry to hear about your boyfriend's difficulties, but this is a probation question, which has nothing to do with Wills and Probate. I do estate planning and probate, and I have no idea about criminal law issues such as probation. You should try reposting your question with a different topic. Best wishes to you and your boyfriend.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your husband. If you have opened a probate estate for your husband, the check should be deposited into the estate's account. You can't just put it into your own account. However, if there is no estate open, if your husband didn't have a Will, if there aren't really any other assets in his estate of any siginificance, and if you don't need to open the estate, you may be able to have the bank that issued the check cash it for you, using a specific statute under Georgia law. If he had other assets in the estate, then you may need to open the estate, in which case you would use the estate's account, or you may be able to make a claim for year's support instead of opening the estate. If he had a Will, however, then you may have to either probate it or make a year's support petition to cash that check. There are a lot of potential options. Unfortunately, no one in this kind of forum can really tell you exactly which ones are going to be the best ones for you, because there's too much additional information that is needed to tell. Consult an attorney, or contact the probate court if you can't afford an attorney, and see if there is a probate information clinic available where someone can help you. Best wishes to you.... Read More