Blog & Resources

From our “Ask a Question” mailbag: My Mom’s will says that all estate money is divided equally between her children. The Personal Representative said she would be writing us equal checks. It has been 9 months and I have not received a check. How do I get her to hold up her end of the will terms?

New Jersey gives the Personal Representative a great deal of unsupervised power to handle the estate. If you feel that this power is being abused, you have the right to force her to appear in court and explain herself. You can hire an attorney experienced in Surrogate’s Court litigation who can file for you a Petition forcing the Personal Representative to file a Schedule of Distribution, which is her road-map plan of how she will distribute the estate’s assets.

My entire life I have lived in Atlantic County, New Jersey. My parents lived in Atlantic City, and so do I. My father died two years ago and my mother passed away as an Atlantic County resident last week. I was an only child, and everything in my mothers Will was left to me, and I am executor. Do I need to probate her Will or open an Estate? Her only assets were our family home valued at $600,000 and her car.

In New Jersey, there are only few cases where there is no need to probate a Will. The two most common situations are 1) when a person dies with no individually held assets or 2) an individual dies with no assets whatsoever.

Most people are honest, but some people are not.

As New Jersey Challenge Attorneys, we focus our litigation practice exclusively on Will Challenges, Will Contests and other estate disputes. Over our many years as Will Challenge Lawyers we have seen the dishonest things that some people will do; including forging wills and using undue influence on people to sign wills.

Time Limits, 4 months or 6 months: If you feel a Will Challenge need be made, act quickly or you may lose your chance for challenging the Will. If you are a New Jersey resident, you only have four months to file your petition or if you are a non-New Jersey resident you have only six months. If you delay, you are bared from filing your Will Challenge and a wrong might go undiscovered. It would be even better if you contact us prior to the Will being filed, as our Will Challenge Lawyers might be able to prevent the Will’s even be filed with the Surrogate.