Inheritance and Asset case

[jwdad]

My chance of an inheritance changed us to an asset case. I stand to get 1/6th of the value of a house my aunt left me and my siblings and aunts. I stand to get 1/24th of any cash and I have no clue what is there. It will take months for this to pan out. This all has rotten timing. Is there a way to force the trustee to abandon these since it will take so long to get? I am also scared they will take the inheritance and then I will get stuck paying the taxes and have nothing to show for it.

[mtbc]

For what it's worth, I don't see why it would hold up your discharge, even if the case took a long time to close afterward. The tax question's a good one!

[TEW]

My chance of an inheritance changed us to an asset case. I stand to get 1/6th of the value of a house my aunt left me and my siblings and aunts. I stand to get 1/24th of any cash and I have no clue what is there. It will take months for this to pan out. This all has rotten timing. Is there a way to force the trustee to abandon these since it will take so long to get? I am also scared they will take the inheritance and then I will get stuck paying the taxes and have nothing to show for it.

When did you file? Before or after the person pasted

[jwdad]

We filed on 11-19-09 and my uncle passed on 7-15. I knew it would be an issue. We got our discharge but the trustee did file papers saying their was an asset of the inheritance.

[AngelinaCat]

Did you use an attorney? If you did, ask this question of him/her. If you filed pro se, then you might want to schedule a couple of free consultions with different BK attorneys and ask this question.


It seems like you or your attorney could file a motion with the court to ask that the asset be abandoned. You have an undivided interest in the house, and for any of that to be sorted out, you and the other parties to the inheritance have to be in agreement as to how to dispose of it and disperse the funds. This usually involves the sale of the house, and the chance of that happening quickly in this economy is poor at best. Also, the chances of all parties agreeing quickly and amicably to the disposal of the uncle's estate is not good. Death and inheritances tend to bring out the worst in people.

Your inheritance problems could take months, if not years to resolve. I doubt the trustee is going to want to wait years to for this to be resolved.

[justbroke]

This all has rotten timing. Is there a way to force the trustee to abandon these since it will take so long to get?

Well, first, let's take things one step at a time. The biggest thing you want in your Bankruptcy, is the discharge. The discharge will not be affected by your potential inheritance. The Trustee will decide, at some point, whether the proceeds from the inheritance are even worth holding the case open and waiting. This could take a long time. If it's going into Probate, that will drag it out even longer.

Who knows, maybe the Trustee could be talked into abandoning the estate.

[Mensa1]

Is there any way that you could come up with a portion of what you expect to be your portion of inheritance? Maybe an advance from another familiy member who is also inheriting and you could assign your interest to them as collaterol that they will be repaid, when the dust settles on the estate.

if you can come by a sum of funds in that manner, contingent upon the Trustee accepting an offer that you might make to settle this, then maybe the T'ee decides to go away and close the case. It really depends on how much is likely to be there, hundreds, thousands, or many, many thousands? If you can offer say half of what you think the T'ee might end up in the end now, that may be a compelling argument. There is the time value of money; often times a dollar today is better than a few dollars 3 yrs from now.

As to the taxes, those shoud be paid by the estate before any distribution to you. your portion, whatever you receive will be tax free to you. Assuming that the death occurred in 2009, any estate of 3.5 mil or less is free from any Federal Estate taxation. Each state has a lower threshold for taxation and they vary. Of course there will be costs to settle the estate to the atty, but again that will be paid by teh gross proceeds and have no effect to you since what you receive will be a net distribution.

Do you know if the Tr'ee has communicated with the Atty who is probating the uncle's estate? Wondering if he has placed any kind of encumbrance or claim against distribution of proceeds?

[jwdad]

I just found out something interesting I did not realize about all this. The house was deeded over to me and the other heirs back in 1996 and the inheritance tax was paid at that time also. I guess this should have been listed as real estate in the BK and then my wildcard exemption might cover it.....hmmmmmmm. I have a call into my attorney but wanted to see what the forum members have to say and hopefully this will help someone else in the future.