Hi all. X-posting from legal advice but I'm hoping to get some recommendations on how to prepare or handle this in the best way.
My grandmother created a will where I am the executor. I am in MA, she is in FL. The will says "I direct all expenses of administering my estate be paid out of my residuary estate. All expenses of packing, storing, and shipping my tangible personal property shall be paid as expenses of administration. I give and devise all of the remainder of my tangible personal property and my estate, real, personal, and mixed, to my granddaughter, Branches26."
She also specifically names her four sons in the will and says they should get nothing.
My grandmother is not smart and she is not logical. According to her, she has 13k in her bank account for the rest of her life and is living off of her pension and social security. She claims there is a life insurance policy that I will get but I've seen no information on it. She hasn't arranged anything with a funeral home and has no direction on a funeral, whether or not she'd like to be cremated, etc. on her will.
As far as I can tell, I will have to arrange everything myself - including taking money out of pocket to fly down to Florida (I am in MA) and hiring a lawyer, etc. I expect that 13k in her bank account will be gone by the time she dies. Her house is worth 200k, and that will be the biggest chunk of money that would go to me, but to be honest - I have no idea where I will get the money to sell the house, fly down to Florida to take care of this stuff, and clear out the house and make it presentable.
To give a better idea of where I'm at, I'm 25 years old. I don't have a lot of money to spend and am working on paying off my student loans.
My grandmother REFUSES to do anything else to prepare her estate. She seems to think she has a lot of money and she'll be fine and in turn, I'll be fine when she dies. I asked her to work with a lawyer to figure this out and have offered to work with them, but all she can say is she doesn't understand why I don't want all this money. She is also thinking of doing a reverse-mortgage to get more money out of the house while she's alive.
Point is: I'll likely be arranging everything on my own when she dies. The best outcome is for arranging everything, I will get a 200k-ish house to sell.
I've been considering filing a disclaimer on her death just to stay away from this mess, but if I can handle this the right way, it would be great to get the money from the house and pay off student loans. I know this will be challenging and I don't know if I fully understand everything I have to do. I'm considering getting a financial advisor as well to prepare for this, but does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions on what I can do to prepare OR what I can do when the time comes?
Thank you!
edit: Hoooly moly guys, let me be cliche and say this got bigger than I expected. I've gotten great advice here and have already talked to grandma and begun to settle her mind to move forward with her on the tons of suggestions I've gotten here. Thank you SO much everyone.
Submitted February 25, 2018 at 04:38PM by Branches26 http://ift.tt/2FtBjGx
