Bill Roper's Journal

I just spent a year and a half going to monthly court hearings to sort out how about 180K that got "found" in a safe deposit box of my late great aunt was going to be distributed.

you see, she was a ward of the state - which meant that everything that she had was supposed to be liquidated. which it was. we thought.

a few weeks after she died, another aunt "found" $180k worth of savings bonds in a safe deposit box no one else knew about. Oops.
Well the State had coughed up about 30k for her care, and they wanted that, and the will specified all of her estate to be split among her surviving 13 brothers and sisters of which exactly one is left living.

So, easy, right? pay off the state, and give the rest of the cash to her sister.

except.

all of the bonds were co-owned by a secondary owner in a POD (pay on the death of) arrangement. So, no problem, get the co-owner to sign off, pay off the state, and give the money to the co-owner, right?

except.

There were actually 17 named co-owners, each with different amounts on their bonds purchased over a period of 30 years, with the various people being spread across 4 countries.

no problem.

except.

the court wasn't sure who was entitled to the money, in what share, and in what order, so it took 1.5 years to do it the "short" way, with all the parties in agreement, including the state, and after 18 court appearences i got my whopping share - about 3 grand.

I feel your pain.