How to Recover Stolen Inheritance in New York City

How to Recover Stolen Inheritance

How to recover stolen inheritance when a thief unlawfully caused your rightful legacy. If someone has redirected wealth meant for you through an invalid will, a questionable trust, a fraudulent property transfer or other suspicious means, reclaiming your legal inheritance is challenging yet achievable.

We are estate litigation attorneys in New York City since 2008, so we are a good source for this information. We will explain common stolen inheritance scenarios and empower you to understand your options to regain what should legally be yours.

Theft Through a Will

To recover an inheritance stolen by a fraudulent will, you would have to successfully contest the will and have it set aside by the court. To contest a will, it’s not enough to disagree with it. You would have to establish one of the following grounds:

Technical Failure. There were technical errors in how the will was made.
Pressure and Manipulation. Someone pressured and manipulated the person into making the will.
Diminished Mental Capacity. The person suffered from cognitive decline that interfered with his ability to understand the will.
Forgery. The will is a fake.
Fraud. The person made the will because someone has been lying to him.

To learn more about contesting a will, read our guide to will contests.

Theft Through a Trust

To recover inheritance taken through a trust, you would have to successfully contest the trust. Contesting a trust is similar to contesting a will. To contest a trust, you would have to prove that the person who made the trust did not have the mental capacity to make the trust and was unduly influenced into making it. In some cases, you would also allege that the person making the trust was defrauded into making it or was forced into making it. You can even try to prove that the trust is a forgery, or has technical defects that render it invalid.

Theft Through a Power of Attorney

If inheritance theft is committed by a person holding a financial power of attorney and committed such abuse either before or after the death of the account owner, you can file a discovery or turnover (or a similar or equivalent) proceeding, requesting the court to direct the person with possession to turn over the funds. Money in the bank account is easily traceable for as long as it is not laundered.

Proving abuse of the financial power of attorney done after the account owner’s death is easy. It is simply showing the transaction done through a financial power of attorney and the death certificate proving the date of death of the account owner. Any transaction conducted after the death of the principal using the financial power of attorney is considered illegal.

Proving abuse of the financial power of attorney before the account owner’s death is a little bit more complex. You must show that the withdrawals made in the bank account were not made for the benefit of the principal or given as a gift by the principal to the agent.

To undo abuse of power of attorney while the person is still alive, you would have to bring a guardianship proceeding.

Theft Through a Joint Account

When the allegation of inheritance theft involves joint account, you have three different pathways to proving inheritance theft:

Prove that the person who actually put the money into the account was being unduly influenced to do so or did not have the capacity to sign the beneficiary designation
Prove that the account was solely for the convenience of the person who put the money into the account
Prove that the account was changed without authorization, either by computer or through a power of attorney

Banking law will apply in recovering this inheritance. Your lawyer will review signature cards and bank records to see whether these joint accounts are accounts for convenience.

Proving lack of capacity and being unduly influenced into changing the beneficiary designation are related. A combination of undue influence and fraud or misrepresentation, precipitated by the owner’s weakened mental state. This is usually proven by the discovery of the account owner’s medical records.

In some states such as New York, if the allegation of inheritance theft involves the account owner designating someone as a joint account owner, you may be able to invalidate this designation by showing that the joint account owner was included in the bank account for the original account owner’s convenience only. This is proven by showing that all withdrawals in the bank account during the lifetime of the account owner were made for the benefit only of the original account owner.

Money can be stolen by abusing a financial power of attorney, either before or after the account holder’s death. There is inheritance theft when undue influence is exerted upon the account holder to change the designated beneficiary prior to death.

Theft Through a Deed

Real estate and vehicles can be stolen through the execution of deeds. The real estate owner could have been unduly influenced into deeding the property to someone else. Generally, if the property, such as real estate, is transferable by deed, most deeds are invalidated by proving a combination of undue influence and fraud or misrepresentation. Undue influence occurs when the owner was coerced into executing the deed by the beneficiary. It normally happens when the owner is in a weakened state or physically reliant on the beneficiary for his daily activities. This is proven through the owner’s medical records, showing the medication the owner was taking and the owner’s health status at the time the deed was executed. When the owner is suffering from a mind-debilitating disease, is taking mind-altering medication, or is physically reliant on the beneficiary for his activities, this can bolster the allegation that the owner was unduly influenced into executing the deed of transfer.

Theft Through Self-Dealing

Sometimes the personal representative (executor) or a trustee commits inheritance theft. They can do so by

Outright transferring estate property to themselves
Not making distributions to the other beneficiaries, only to themselves or family members aligned with them
Skimming off estate funds and charging their personal expenses to the estate

If the personal representative commits inheritance theft any interested person such as a beneficiary or creditor can file a petition requesting the removal of the personal representative and the nomination of a successor. You can also request that the personal representative be restrained from committing further acts, pending resolution of your petition. If the court files misconduct, you can file a surcharge action, holding the personal representative liable for damages caused to the estate due to the inheritance theft. Depending on the state, the personal representative’s violation of fiduciary duty may be penalized with punitive damages.

Theft of Personal Items

Personal items can be physically stolen before or after the owner’s death. This is particularly more difficult to prove since stolen personal property can easily and immediately be sold so the thief would not be caught with possession of it. Stolen personal property is a little bit more complicated to prove because control over personal property usually gives rise to the presumption that that person who controls it has ownership, unless the personal property is titled, such as an automobile or a valuable painting.

If you want to learn more about how to recover stolen inheritance, we at the Law Offices of Albert Goodwin are here for you. We are located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. You can call us at 212-233-1233 or send us an email at [email protected].

[1] SCP § 711 – Suspension, modification or revocation of letters or removal for disqualification or misconduct

[2] NY EPTL § 11-1.1

[3] NY EPTL § 11-1.1