I am just off the phone with the paralegal for the attorney who wrote the will (he will call me later).
The financial mechanism was a “life estate” which she said. Either the deed was already in our names or automatically passed to me and two brothers on her passing.
The better news is that I will not need an attorney or grant POA. The “closing” - once we are near that stage - is they will FedEx me documents to sign with a regular notary. So in a way, I begin the closing.
No costly and time-taking “medallion signature” will be necessary (unless I did in fact have to grant POA from the UK - which I do not.
I just need my brother to confirm he intends to use the same will-writing attorney (who does property, estates, etc…) yet it would seem this is SOP. If it totally isn’t, it would be faster to fly back - which again I do not intend to do.
That potentially could have been the issue here, as the previous difficult brother said he would initiate selling his third (or buy us out for whatever he considers fair value) yet the house is up for sale on Monday - two days before his “deadline”
Now the issue is with the executor/oldest brother who is paranoid - esp. about being “trapped” into having to come to let people in for the estate sale. My hope is the realtor (who could let people in) or the estate seller (with whom he needs to meet with to get a signature) can talk him off the ledge.
And I’m essentially letting a guy who runs an estate sales company to take everything and sell it. I will be giving him blanket access to pass the gatehouse and if I can take this leap of faith I’ll give him the garage door code.
As if things weren’t bad enough, I opened a letter to my mom with months of HOA arrears. If that has to be settled it will take time for me to do it on my own.
Seriously, I would engage a US lawyer to advise you and act on your behalf in all this.
Don’t rely on paralegals or family members. Or indeed, us kibbitzers here.
Another advantage of having an attorney deal with it is that it adds a layer of neutrality: removes family tensions from the proceedings.
Good luck, I don’t think I can usefully add anything more.
Thanks (all as well). I may look into getting a lawyer. Not really much he can do for the online estate auction. My mom didn’t have much gold or good jewellery and real Waterford Crystal doesn’t seem like it’ll fetch much money.
As to the honesty of the guy who owns the estate sales company, he found $400 in some blanket drawer and could likely have pocketed it when I wasn’t looking. That and some of my old watches paid nearly all the deposit.
So I’m just hoping it offsets the price of outright junking everything. I had a run-in with psycho brother - apparently their house has a Ring doorbell and those things must be good enough to have seen the estate sale guys car in the driveway.
He said he’d be back later, but he’ll have to kill me in the morning as I’m going to bed. Both sides of the house have bungee-corded chairs blocking the way (at least to make enough noise), the front door lock knobs are duct taped and I have one of those security key-ring things where if the top is disengaged it shrieks like a banshee. I asked the retired sheriff to call 911 (as will I) if I toss that thing over the fence into her yard.
It would be great to see psycho commit a felony witnessed by even a retired LEO. But that’s another thread I don’t want to resurrect.
Indeed. The best legal advice I received was “get your own” attorney, and as at least one brother has not only threatened both of his other two brothers and besides. being extremely angry, and after threatening both of us with a lawsuit to either force a sale or sell his 1/3rd, is “now unhappy” to hear the house will be up for sale. Yet I’ll say more about that in the thread from eight weeks ago, the night my mom (96) died he threatened to kill my oldest brother in front of a palliative nurse who said “I have to report this to the police”. (and he has a CCP and several firearms).
So trying to secure my own lawyer. Can anyone tell me if I can retain a (New York) lawyer from the UK? I don’t have a car so I’m just any dog on the internet anyways. He would be paid in dollars of course.
ETA: I’m still in the USA till Monday afternoon, yet have no car. I just meant if I have to visit the lawyer rather than have something notarised and sent from the UK I’d greatly prefer that.
My wife and I have retained a US lawyer in the past. Mind you, she is a US citizen and we still have a house in the US: we are sort of a transatlantic family. I’m sure a quick call to an attorney would resolve the point.
Notaries mean something rather different in the UK. As opposed to the US where they are very common and it’s sort of just a rubber-stamp procedure. But in the UK they are hard to find and much more expensive.
Thanks. I own 1/3 of a house in the USA, am a US citizen. I know to grant POA to anyone, from the UK I would be a costly, time-consuming “Medallion Stamp”
Now I want my own USA attorney. Silly question: Do I need to grant POA to a USA attorney from the UK. I cannot go the Medallion route.
And yes, I had a thread about my car breaking down on a 30 mile ride to the only notary I could schedule. Fortunately I found another one. So yeah: USA everywhere, UK: elusive
And Medallion firms take too long and cost too much.
To be honest I had never previously heard of this “Medallion Stamp” thing. On a cursory search it seems like this is something rather specific to do with transferring financial securities, and doesn’t seem particularly relevent here?
Since you are a US citizen, I don’t see why there would be any problem retaining a US lawyer to deal with this for you, and probably the best thing to do since it seems the situation is both somewhat complex and contentious.
From what I’ve been able to find a Medalion Stamp ( also used in the US - in fact, it seems even in the UK it’s only used to transfer US securities) is used in securites transactions , guarantees that you have authority to perform the transacton and makes the guarantor liable for any forgeries. Very different from a notarization. NY allows attorneys to be “elctronic notaries” who can notarize documents remotely no matter where the signer is as long as the attorney is in New York. So as long as the attorney you hire is an electronic notary, that should work.
Yes, one of the annuities my mother bequeathed to me required my USA account and routing number. Yet another required a letterhead, signed by a bank representative and as this is a Paypal “Bancorp” account that exists only on the intertubes, that was not forthcoming.
To have it sent to my bank account in the UK required a Medallion Stamp. I had never heard of such a financial thing before either. My theory is it’s a Tory Money Laundering scam financed by some Eastern Syndicate.
To appoint POA from the UK required this Medallion Stamp. To do it from the USA requires a notary and two dis-interested parties so either they have staff on hand or I give out free coffee and donuts on the street to get two. And then the POA person needs a notary yet no other parties.
To have a dollar-denominated check sent to me in the UK required my UK address. When I return, that will be coming (coincidentally) via FedEx that day. I will endorse it and send it back via FedEx to Fidelity, which when this all began, I did not know they also were a “real bank” i.e. account and routing number and they likely could have provided the letterhead and such the other company wanted.
I could have gone to my UK bank with a dollar check and they’d have cashed it for some fees (and not glared at me like the vendor in Heathrow when I tried to spend filthy Euros) yet for now I’m happy with dollars.
And I now “have a New York attorney”. I quote it as she does not require a retainer and assured me I could hire her without visiting her office in person to avoid any UK notaries and the dreaded Medallion.
I vaguely recall my sister (executor) needing to get Medallion Stamps after my parents died in 97, but I also believe those were not needed in similar transactions later. So perhaps their use is becoming less frequent. May have applied to stocks held via certificate. But I really don’t know.
When I needed a Medallion signature, I walked into a Fidelity office and they did it for me there. I don’t remember if it cost anything, but if it did it was certainly nowhere near $600.
Not even sure why you’d need a Medallion in the USA with Fidelity.
When I needed a Notary I thought I could just pop into the cruddy place they’ve moved the USA Embassy in London to and get it done. They are booked for notaries through August and they do not do Medallion even if you pay in TRUMP crypto.
In the USA, while I am here, I would not need a Medallion to grant POA, as I’ve sortof retained a New York attorney and I did ask the obvious question, “From the UK, do I need in any way to grant you power of attorney and will Medallion ever be a factor”
I might need a “regular” notary - forget the Trump Embassy - yet not a Medalllion.
I needed a Medallion Signature Guarantee to transfer some securities. I don’t remember exactly when that happened; I think it was related to my mother’s estate. I don’t think Fidelity was involved in the transfer; I just used them to get the Medallion Signature Guarantee because I am a Fidelity customer and they offer that service to their customers.
Because a Medallion stamp is used to transfer or sell US securities which may be why it’s so difficult/expensve to get one in the UK. It has nothing to do with POA. You might be confusing a Medallion Stamp/Guarantee and an apostile, which you would possibly need if you were trying to use a UK document in the US.
I was born in New York and will be helpful with subway directions, yet don’t yield to the “wallet inspector”. That same sentiment once was “I didn’t just fall off the carrot truck” yet that sounds like an ICE kind of thing.
All I’ve been assured of - albeit over the pheone and non-binding retainers - is the closing contract can be done without lawyers. My psycho brother could possibly (against all his interests - do judges consider that?) file lawsuits and he is the perfect “crazy neighbor” to scamper by and take a piss on the lawn while saying he somehow has a concealed carry permit and several firearms.
ETA: And at closing we will need his signature. I assume his roid-rage will be assuaged by an incoming check.
I don’t quite understand what you’re getting at with that comment. I am just writing that as someone who works for a U.S. law firm (as a paralegal, not in real estate law) who has scheduled and conducted countless consultations via phone and Zoom. It’s a perfectly routine thing. Whether any given lawyer is otherwise someone you might want to hire is another story. But lots of people have the need from time to time to hire a lawyer in a jurisdiction where they don’t live without having to travel there.
My apologies to the other 49 states, plus Puerto Rico and Greenland.
I was just saying I realise - and have been learning before and during this thread - that I’ve not consulted with an attorney who works via Zoom. Wise to the world. I am sure much of the world can be scammed - and I’d do anything I could to help - yet my assurance was I did not need to grant “Power of Attorney” - to an Attorney with me being in the UK - with perhaps any more than a regular notary and not the dreaded Medallion.