My sister was executor of my moms will however she relinquished herself from the responsibility and turned it over to the court

I am sorry for your loss. Your question and detail are a little confusing and I need to remind you that I am not licensed in Washington. That said, typically, administration of an estate is not turned over to a court. If your sister was appointed and wanted to resign, there is a process that must be followed and I don’t think that the court would let her resign without someone else stepping in to be the new executor. Further, your reference to a GAL doesn’t coincide with the situation. Usually, the only reason a GAL would be appointed in an estate is if there are beneficiaries that are incompetent, like minors. Usually, the GAL is just reviewing the situation after everything is done so that they can say that it was done accurately. Certainly there are all kinds of scams. However, the probate of a Will, with the assistance of a qualified attorney, would be difficult to scam. I suggest that you visit the court house that is supervising this administration and review the file. If you can’t do that, I suggest that you contact an attorney to represent your interests and have him/her review the situation. Of course your first step is to have a long discussion with your sister so that you have all the facts.

I agree with Attorney Snell that it is difficult to tell from your summary what exactly has transpired. You would also need to be more specific about who the "people" that you are concerned about, that might be taking financial advantage of you. I hear *all the time* about scams involving probate, incapacitated people and estates. It happens. It is a fact in our society that there are always people who are determined to make money off of the gullibility and vulnerability of others. It is particularly insidious when this is done to people who suffer from diminished capacity. In Michigan, there have been MANY highly publicized instances where large amounts of money were looted from estates by people who were *supposed* to be safeguarding things. In some of those cases, judges lost their job, not because they participated in the wrongdoing, but because it happened "on their watch." The laws are set up to try to prevent this from happening. You mentioned that there was a GAL in your case. That is one of the tools used by the court to try to protect people who are incapable of full appreciating their rights. Some professionals are better than others and ALL of us are human, so mistakes can be made. If you believe that someone is deliberately taking advantage, however, then you need to report this to the proper authorities, whether that is the judge, the fiduciary or someone else. If you are uncertain about what is going on or how to proceed, then it would be well worth your while to consult with a probate attorney to find out where you stand. James Frederick

Are you saying a GAL was appointed for the estate, or for someone's interests in the estate? Or are you talking about an appointed PR (personal representative) At any rate, yes. I have encountered a case where the court appointed PR billed the estate an excessive amount of fees for the amount of work done. It is possible you may petition the court so that you could step in as PR. I suggest you consult a probate attorney as soon as possible as the timeline is running.

The court appoints a GAL in a probate usually when there is a minor involved or an incapacitated person. I assume that there is one in this case. Is that right? Ask the GAL why the GAL thinks the house is upside down. That usually means the net proceeds from the sale will be insufficient to pay of the mortgage. What are the net proceeds? A $180,000 sale would probably not even break even depending on how many past due monthly payments there are. Yes there can be some underhanded actions sometime but you need more facts to even begin addressing that. 1. Get a hold of the Inventory and find out the basis of the valuations. Get a hold of all the pleadings in the case. You can go down to the courthouse and make copies of the pleadings. I have even done it on line before. You have to ask the PR for a copy of the inventory since we usually do not file it since it contains sensitive financial information. 2. Find out why the GAL believes the House is underwater. I am a little confused on why the bank told you what the debt was. They are usually more close lipped than that from my experience. Are they foreclosing? 3. I assume that you are an heir under the will or at least a testate heir. Usually you have to be to have standing to object. The pleadings are public record except for the inventory. You need to be an heir or creditor to have access to the inventory. With those facts gathered, you can have a meaningful discussion with an attorney for a nominal fee and get a much better idea if there is a problem. Then, they can give you an idea of the actions and cost to remedy it. It is really tough as an attorney to expend fees on behalf of a client to get facts just to tell them there are not any problems that they can really address. Probates, especially with a GAL involved, have a fair amount of transparency that makes it harder to engage in a scam I suspect. Until I saw something really amiss, I wouldn't assume there was one and waste a lot of my clients money looking for one.