Its been almost two months since my father passed away and according to my mother the lawyer appointed in the will keep dragging his feet to get everything done. She is being charge $175 an hour that's what she's been told by the attorney. What the will pretty much stated is that my father's money in the bank will be divided towards each children, the title of the house will be transfer to my mother and one bank account will be transfer to my mother also. But the attorney, keeps telling my mom that she needs to do this and do that. Like for instance, right now he is trying to call the hospital to see how much the bill is and my mother already recieve the bill. THe insurance paid $35,000 and my mom only has to pay $2,000. My mother took care of everything so far. I mean she's been through a lot losing my father and she is in the healing process right now. Tomorrow suppose to be my father's birthday and everything should've been done. She's afraid that the more the lawyer drag his feet and taking his time the money that my father has in the account will go towards paying him. I can understand that. She doesn't want to be like the woman she knew in the nursing home that her 1 million dollars went to the lawyer because he/she keep taking their time getting things done. I also want this whole thing to be over. We just want to move on and be done with everything. Its sad that my father passed away and I"m still dealing with it and its not helping when my mother is so stressed out right now because of this whole thing. I don't know what else to do and advice to tell her other than to make a complaint if he keeps dragging his feet.

Perhaps what your mom doesn't understand is that a lot of her husband's assets should transfer to her OUTSIDE of the will. For instance, any bank account that she co-owned and any financial account or insurance policy where she was beneficiary passes automatically to her outside of probate. The attorney is telling her to do things because he doesn't need to be involved.

That is how we have most of our estate set-up. Almost NOTHING will be passed along through probate. As a matter of fact, we have wills merely to outline our wishes for the guardianship of DD in case we die before she reaches the age of 18.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

She's already transfered the title of the house to her name, the vehicle also is already in her name. The joint account that they had together its already in her name. The only thing is left is the money in my father's account. I keep telling my mother to be patient because everything has to be done legally. She's an impatient woman because she's been through losing my father and she just want to move on. She wants to hire another lawyer but the lawyer she have right now said she can't do that. Honestly I don't know why. If the lawyer is only dealing with one thing and that's the bank right now shouldn't he be done by now? I mean its been two weeks since my mother recieved the death certificate and its been a week since my mother transfer everything to her name except for the money in the bank and for him to charge my mother $175 an hour I think its rediculous. For God sake its not like were talking millions here. Its been two weeks and she wants to pull her her hair out. They are going to the probate court right now. She's been told by the lawyer because of the "amount" its in there they have to go to the court.

So your father had a bank account and you mom was not co-owner, nor was she named beneficiary on the account, right?

If so, yes, she has to go to court and get an order from the judge.

Yes, she can fire her attorney. He works for her.

She can take this to court herself. She doesn't need an attorney.

$175 per hour is a reasonable amount. I guess it depends on how many hours the attorney is charging her. A very good attorney can charge more per hour and end up costing you less because they bill you for fewer hours. A less expense attorney might mess things up and end up costing you more money. She should ask how much the attorney will charge for courtroom time (from the moment he leaves his office to the moment he returns) because that is often more - expect about $375 per hour for that.

Of course, she should also visit a tax accountant NOW to see if she'll suffer any tax consequences from the transfer of the house. She needs to fully understand what is happening and why. Of course, you'll help her make sure she gets all her Social Security benefits, too.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

My mother doesn't qualify for the Survivor benifits because she's still earning $28,000 a year and the SS said its too much. She doesn't want to add more hours because she wants to qualify for the I don't know what's called but its like Homestead or something where she doesn't have to pay property tax because of her income being so low. I don't know what the deal is with that but before when my father was still alive they were only paying $700 a year for the property.

the other thing is if this acct is going thru probate the average probate take over one year now just and fyi don't know if this acct is going thru that or not.

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fALL SEVEN TIMES STAND UP EIGHT!

I deal with this all the time in my law office. I will try and show it to you from my eyes, being the Paralegal. We, the law firm, have to follow specific laws with regard to probate. If he owned an account, in MN there is an Affidavit of Collection for any personal property under $20k so you would not need to go through probate. Maybe your state does not have this. Then you would need to go through probate. Your state might require that you have an attorney prepare all docs, again in MN you must have attorney prepare docs and some counties require the attorney actually be present at the court. A lot of people always blame the law firm, and I am not saying all law firms are saints, but we do have to follow specific instructions/laws when we can send in a form, how long we have to wait for publication, when we can get letters testamentary which will give your mother authority to take the money in the account, to when we can file taxes and when we can close the estate. I don't think it takes a year, at least in my office cases generally take 3-6 months, depending upon how slow the counties are.

As far as the lawyer calling places that you have received bills from, he could possibly be looking for a dod (date of death) value that may not be clear on the bill, or wondering if they are going to be filing a demand for notice, etc.

I have clients constantly hounding us wondering when they can get the money, etc. and I am on the phone a few times a week telling them it really is out of our hands and they can call the county but it won't make it any faster. Of course, I don't know if this is your lawyers case, but I am just saying what I see.

Oh, and $175 per hour is not bad actually. The attorney's I work with charge $275 an hour for probate with a base fee of $2,000.