My wife’s father died last year, and relations between her and his second wife are not good. So in all that follows, please assume, as we are, that the stepmother is doing all that she can to screw my wife.
Her father lived in Virginia.
We have just received a “Notice Regarding Estate” from her, and are trying to understand what it says so we can respond appropriately. The form in question is CC-1616.
It starts out:
The notice is mailed or delivered to you as required by law because the person who signed this notice has identified you as a spouse, heir at law or beneficiary under a will of the deceased person named above. This notice is to tell you that, in the circuit court clerk’s office, listed above, either a personal representative has qualified or a proponent has probated the deceased person’s will.
THIS NOTICE DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL RECEIVE ANY MONEY OR PROPERTY.
The name, address and telephone number of a personal representative or a proponent of the will is: [Name of stepmother]
What is the difference between a “personal representative has qualified” and “a proponent has probated”? It is the difference between the probate process just starting vs. being completed? Her father died more than six months ago. Would six months be enough time to probate the will, or is it more likely the process has just started? The form doesn’t say what the current status of the probate is.
Then there is this section. (I have numbered each sentence in bolded brackets to help identify them.)
NOTICE: [1] If personal representatives qualified on this estate, they are required by law to file an inventory with the commissioner of accounts within four months after they qualify in the clerk’s office, to file an account within sixteen months of their qualification, and to file additional accounts within sixteen months from the date of their last account period until the estate is settled. [2] If you make written request therefor to the personal representatives, they must mail copies of these documents (not including any supporting vouchers, but including a copy of the decedent’s will) to you at the same time the inventory or account is filed with the commissioner of accounts unless (i) you would take only as an heir at law in a case where all of the decedent’s probate estate is disposed of by will, or (ii) your gift has been satisfied in full before the time of such filing. [3] Your written request may be made at any time; it may relate to one specific filing or to all filings to be made by the personal representative, but it will not be effective for filings made prior to its receipt by a personal representative. [4] A copy of your request may be sent to the commissioner of accounts with whom the filings will be made. After the commissioner of accounts has completed work on an account filed by a personal representative, the commissioner files it and a report thereon in the clerk’s office of the court wherein the personal representative qualified. [5] If you make written request therefor to the commissioner before this filing, the commissioner must mail a copy
of this report and any attachments (excluding the account) to you on or before the date that they are filed in the clerk’s office.
I’m trying to figure out what this paragraph says we can do, and what the stepmother and/or commissioner have to do if we make requests of them.
The first sentence states what the stepmother has to do after qualifying as personal representative. We don’t know when she qualified. Is that a fairly quick (i.e., less than two months) process after a death? Is she likely to have already filed the inventory that is required within four months of qualifying?
The second sentence says that she has to provide us copies of the various documents, including the will, but not if “(i) you would take only as an heir at law in a case where all of the decedent’s probate estate is disposed of by will, or (ii) your gift has been satisfied in full before the time of such filing.” My wife has received nothing under the will so far, so the second condition doesn’t seem to apply, but what does that first clause mean?
The third sentence apparently says that stepmother doesn’t have to send us filings made before she gets our request. So if she has done all the filings already, she doesn’t have to send us anything?
The fourth sentence says we can ask the commissioner for documents, and the fifth says if we make the request before his report is finished, he must send them to us “on or before the date that they are filed in the clerk’s office.” It is not clear whether he has to send us all the same documents that we could have requested of the stepmother under sentence 2, or some subset, or just his report. It also doesn’t say what happens if we make the request after he has filed with the clerk. Do we still get them?
Based on our assumption that the stepmother is doing everything in her power to screw with my wife, it seems likely that she has already filed at least some of the required documents, thereby apparently eliminating her responsibility to send the copies to my wife herself. If that is the case, will we still be able to get all the filings from the commissioner?
We’ve never had to deal with probate issues before, and are suspicious of all of the stepmother’s actions. So we want to do whatever we can to counter any possible bad faith actions she is taking.
So what is our best course here? Send a request to the stepmother? The commissioner? Both? Any other suggestions or ideas?