After my uncle died (6 months ago) my other uncle became the executor of his estate. I was named in the will and am supposed to get $20,000. The problem is that my uncle says he can't pay me any of the money yet because he doesn't know how much he'll have to pay taxes. He says he has another six months to get it done and I'll have to wait. My question is, can an executor make distributions from an estate before taxes are paid and the probate is closed? It seems like he could do this if he wanted to because the estate has a lot of property he could use to sell and pay taxes. Thanks in advance for your help.
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The Editor, Mark Bernardin, is an attorney living in MA. Please send your suggestions or comments to: TheEditor@malawforum.com
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The answers and information provided on this site are for informational purposes only and are NOT substitutes for professional legal advice. Before making legal decisions, you should discuss your specific circumstances with an attorney.
Distributions from estate
He could make early distributions, see below, but he does not have to. Under Massachusetts probate law, a named beneficiary in a will does not have any legal right to demand distributions from the estate sooner than one year after the date of death. I understand that the process seems very slow, but you may not know the entire story with respect to your uncle's estate. Your uncle's creditors have up to one year to make a claim against the estate. So your uncle, the executor, needs to go through the process of liquidating the assets and paying all debts and taxes before he can distribute. In some cases, named beneficiaries get nothing, because the estate goes entirely to pay debts and taxes.
If you have not received any distribution after one year from the date of death, you may want to discuss the matter with your uncle and ask him about the state of the probate and when you can collect the inheritance. Also, a named beneficiary can demand an accounting from the executor. After the twelve month period mentioned above, you could sue the executor for payment. However, if there are still pending claims against the estate, your uncle may have the right to retain enough money to pay the potential debt and, as a result, your suit may not prevail.
In some cases, where the estate is large and the executor is comfortable that he has a handle on any possible creditor claims, the executor may choose to make distributions before the probate process closes. However, he does so at his own risk. He can be held liable for improper distributions or distributions that render the estate unable to pay all debts or taxes. Hope that helps.