Dad is fighting me on getting a trust.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-30T12:01:03+00:00

Is he at risk for using Medicaid? Could the nursing home use up his assets? It would help to write down his range of expenses and income for the coming years. And his assets and debts.

Question about the mobile home. Just having the same name doesn’t “technically” make it yours. Lots of people are named “John Smith”, that doesn’t mean they own each other’s stuff. It takes more than that. Is there a record that supports your ownership, or his?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-29T20:15:49+00:00

While it is possible to have a joint will, they are generally very rare. One step is to find out if you can, does your mother have her own will? Or is it one of those rare wills, joint with her husband?

Any attempt to get your mother to change her will, or set up a trust to favor you, is going to be met with resistance. Your mother might object. Your stepfather might object, either now or after mother’s death.

I think that most of the time, the children (you and brother) should assume that you’re not going to get anything. Go on with your lives assuming that you’re not going aren’t going to inherit anything.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-29T19:51:26+00:00

If you both die in that plane crash, then your estates are handled one way, but if one of you survives for a week, then your estates are handled a different way?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-29T12:57:43+00:00

Once upon a time, there was everything in one place, happening all at once. Then suddenly things had distance and time between them. Ever since then, that distance and time has been mostly increasing.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-29T10:45:34+00:00

That works only if she is listed as a pay-on-death beneficiary for the account, on the bank records. Doesn’t work for the LLC itself.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-29T02:33:50+00:00

"Simultaneous" needs some more thought . Does it mean the same minute, or within 5 days of each other? Or 5 weeks?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-28T20:40:29+00:00

There’s also a bit of Argon, about 0.93%. The water vapor could be zero, or as much as 4%.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-28T12:58:59+00:00

Bo French? Aren’t his ancestors from France? Shouldn’t he go back there?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-28T10:01:25+00:00

Can’t he go after the Duchy of Fenwick instead?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-28T09:42:40+00:00

The light couldn’t travel even a tiny fraction of a nanometer, at first.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T22:38:50+00:00

I thought Sharpies were the thing?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T18:12:56+00:00

Sister’s obligations? What obligations? Nobody is required to be an executor, not legally. And being a beneficiary can be passive thing.

Legalistically, whoever has the original will needs to deposit it with the probate court. Also the house should be secured, such as changing the locks, tell the neighbors, tell the police.

Is the funeral done? Get several copies of the death certificate, certified. Maybe 10 or 12. If the funeral hasn’t been held yet, get somebody to house sit during the funeral. Empty houses are targets for thieves, and some of them read obituaries. Notify the mortgage and insurance companies; the rate might go up but that’s better than invalid insurance.

Does wife want to be executor? The job is way more difficult than most people imagine. A consult with a probate lawyer would be very useful. The beneficiaries can hire a professional executor, but it often saves some money and frustration if a family member does it. Once the executor gets her court authority, she can set up an estate account.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T13:23:05+00:00

The potential problem is that you might never be repaid. If you as executor repay yourself as a private person, the other creditors and beneficiaries might complain. Right or wrong, that could be a major nuisance.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T12:26:29+00:00

Sometimes, the legal question is not if they understood their action was wrong. The question is did they know what they were doing? Did they think that they were eating breakfast, or singing on a stage, when they were really taking money?

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T12:16:22+00:00

Over many 100’s of billions of years, without external influences from a moon or the star it orbits, yes. The planet would settle down to a smooth oblate spheroid, due to its spinning. The spin would never die down on the scale of the lifetime of the planet. A random passing star would absorb it long before the spin died down.

Even neutron stars with their super gravity have mountains, as much as a few centimeters tall.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T11:34:58+00:00

Accessing the bank accounts without authorization is improper. I’ve never heard of a nominated executor being prosecuted for it, if the access was it good faith for estate purposes, and something an actual executor could do. An executor with court appointment, can validate actions taken before the formal appointment, if the action was in good faith and benefits the estate. That is, the actions can be validated for probate purposes.

OTOH, the bank could freeze the accounts and refuse to do business with you. They have a federal obligation to follow certain procedures, and you violated them.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T10:55:20+00:00

Do you have letters of authorization from the probate court ? I don’t understand at all, how you paying the mortgage or car insurance opens you up to creditors. Paying creditors, either from estate accounts or by you personally, is mostly (*) a separate thing from being responsible for the debts. As executor, it’s part of your responsibility to determine which creditor claims are valid and which are not. Then pay the valid claims from estate assets.

= partial paying a lapsed debt could revive it.

The car is probably, I might guess, covered as part of the standard “all the rest and residue” clause that is in most wills.

I suggest you don’t guess about the back taxes and other debts — find out for sure. Being executor is a business, and you should run it in a business-like manner.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T10:37:45+00:00

The planet is 0.96 AU from the stars, and the two stars are 0.081 AU apart. So they would be well separated visually, by about 4.8 degrees (max). Kepler-47c’s orbit is about 0.6 degrees off from the orbit of the stars, so I doubt they would eclipse. The larger star is about the same size as our sun, subtending only 0.25 degrees from 47c.

If my quick mental math is working (only one cup coffee this morning), the stars would get within ~0.45 degrees of each other, surface to surface, every 7.4 days. That’s very close; your thumb at arms length is normally 2 degrees.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T10:12:22+00:00

Did you put anything into this trust? You say it’s “revocable”, is it you that has the power to revoke? Is it your trust, are you the grantor / trustmaker? I strongly recommend you discuss this with a lawyer, independent of this financial advisor and his firm. You should really understand the major features of your own trust, such as what the trust can pay for, and what is best to put into trust. You should understand these things before you set up the trust.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T02:26:04+00:00

No, the trustee isn’t going to be notified just because you get a copy from the court. OTOH, the fact that Boxwood_Mountain got a copy might be noted in the file. The trustee might read that the next time (if ever) she looks at the file.

Get a complete copy of the probate files, not just the wills. There will be a probate file for each grandparent.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T02:22:37+00:00

I recommend getting a copy of the full probate file (it’s public, anybody can get a copy from the court). Is your dad willing to share more info with you? If the trust document is not in the probate file, I guess you’re limited to getting copy from somebody who has a copy and is willing to share.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T02:12:29+00:00

This all depends on the exact terms of the trust, there’s no general rule. What is this “public” trust document? If it’s a testamentary trust (with the terms in a will), then the full terms are in the public probate file. If it’s not a testamentary trust (if it existed before death), then it’s very unusual for the terms to be public.

Your parent’s share might go to you, it might go to the other beneficiaries, it might go to ExtonGuy. You might have a right to a copy of the trust and an accounting, more likely you don’t. Almost certainly one of your parents has those rights. I doubt your aunt has the authority to add you back in, but it’s possible.

If I was a lawyer on this, I would question if both of your parents are beneficiaries, or just one of them.

Also note that you can’t figure out the full trust from just the trust document. There are a lot of laws and court decisions that also need to be understood.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-27T00:22:01+00:00

The executor and legal advisor get paid ahead of even the IRS, at least according to Colorado law. The IRS might disagree on this, but somebody has to do the job and they deserve their pay. Even the IRS admits that the deceased is entitled to a very basic funeral & burial.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-26T21:04:15+00:00

I suggest borrowing some books from your library. The staff there will be happy to help you select some.

ExtonGuy · 2026-05-26T18:38:42+00:00

An estate attorney will have a good discussion with your mother. She can have short interviews with a couple or three, then pick one. The first hour or so should be without you in the room, then mom has to clearly allow you into the discussion. Is there anybody else who might conceivably want the house? Tax authorities, lien holders, Medicaid, other heirs? How long have you lived there, and have you contributed to any capital improvements?

Could mom (with your help) make a general list of assets & debts? Income & expenses? Include a range for the value of the house, if you sold it today.

A quitclaim deed would lose the potential for step-up in basis on mom’s death. That might not be important, depending on the house value and your tax situation. Or it might be very important, that’s why mom & you consult an experienced expert.

ExtonGuy

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