Hello, my name is Josh; I live in Seneca County, NY.

I have been referred to the Onondaga County Bar Association by the New York Lawyer Referral Service. My situation is as follows:

My father passed away in Sept 2014; at the time, I was 11.

My dad's will directed that everything in the estate be divided among his three sons (me and my two older brothers), and my older brother was named executor of the estate.

The estate was finally settled out of court between my mother (my father's wife) and my older brother (the executor), in Feb, 2020. 

Having turned 18 in March of 2021, I am finding that there were estate assets that my brother intentionally concealed and did not include as part of the estate. Some of them (such as $40,000 in cash taken from my dad's house immediately after his death, and split between my two older brothers) I knew about, but didn't think anything could be done about it.

On top of that was a building my dad held the mortgage to in North Carolina. Around the time the estate was settled, my brother admitted to me through email that I was owed a third of it, but it wasn't until recently that I realized it was not formally accounted as an estate asset, and I now have reason to believe he does not plan to finish paying the rest of my share (about $18,000 remaining).

I have gone to the county GIS in NC and according to the county records, my father was the last person to hold the mortgage.

(My father's and brothers name are the same, except for that my father is Jr and my brother is III, and it does not say either suffixes on the building's title, but it is clearly my dad's signature)

There was also a Toyota Convertible and a Suzuki Burgman 500, both in good condition, that my dad owned before his death, and they should have been included in the estate.

My brother who is the executor got the Suzuki Burgman 500, my other brother got the Toyota Convertible, and I got the wrecked Dodge Grand Caravan that our dad crashed in, worth about $300.

Being 11, I didn't think anything of this, and figured it was fair (we each get 1 vehicle). I am just now realizing that the minivan I got was something known as "exempt property" that was technically my mom's but she gave to me, and that the car and motorcycle were kept from being included in the estate.

I do not know how to prove this, since I believe a title from the NY DMV can only be requested by the owner, which I am not. However I guarantee they were my dads, because I lived with him and rode in them frequently.

There is also a PDF bank statement to my dad that I have a copy of, from 2009, with a stated balance of $78,051.30. This is 5 years before his death, but having lived with him I know he didn't buy anything worth $78k or even close during those five years, as does my mother (his then wife) and his best friend.

Thank you for reviewing my situation. Please let me know if you have a lawyer you could refer me to that would be willing to work with me.

Josh Bauer
contact@joshbauer.com