The Expert Podcast

…Inheritance theft is the fastest growing form of fraud that we see in our agency every single day So what is inheritance theft Inheritance theft is sometimes referred to as probate fraud. Or death fraud or family fraud. What happens is somebody in a family dies, usually it's one of the older relatives a grandfather or great-grandfather. And that person dies and there are certain assets that's owned by that person It could be their house it could be bank accounts, it can be vehicles. Any type of assets that that person owns. Goes through a process of being distributed to the family. And whether that distribution goes through a formal will, that the person had, or goes through probate which distributes it properly. Many times in that process, there are certain relatives that look to grab more of the assets than they're entitled to. They take money out of the bank account. They transfer vehicles They might deed a property over to them. Sometimes they try to hide the fact that these assets were owned by the deceased person in the first place So other relatives may not know sometimes if a relative is out of town. They live far away. The people who live close by sometimes we'll try to hide assets and say well no, Joe didn't have that old car in the barn or there wasn't this bank account or insurance policy. And they'll try to abscond And with assets that rightfully belong to other family members. Sometimes it's one family member who grabs the asset before. The. Person dies even or even before it goes to probate. So how do you investigate probate fraud or inheritance theft Well, the first step. Is to perform a very good thorough asset search and. An asset forensics that goes back in time a little bit to make sure you're catching any transfers of assets. that happened on or about the time the person died. And that's called a flow of assets because you want to make sure that there's no what's called fraudulent conveyances. A fraudulent conveyance is when somebody takes an asset. And transfers it away when they're not supposed to, they put it in their name They put in somebody else's name. Many times these assets are under the radar So to speak a hidden bank account. A vehicle that nobody knew was owned or real estate that somehow gets transferred to a family member. If one of the family members is the executor of the estate. They sometimes can do. that are improper with their handling of the estate The difference is if an executor does something wrong it's even worse because that in many cases is a crime instead of just…Transferring an asset away If you're let's say the nephew. You might get a slap on the wrist and have the asset clawed back If you're an executor and improperly transfer assets away in many states that's actually a criminal offense. So if you are a victim of. Inheritance theft or probate fraud. You first want to make sure you get a good inventory of the assets that you run through? What. is owned and maybe even don't assume. What you know about the assets owned by the deceased person? Many times over. Years of a person becoming older, they may accumulate assets in things like 401k funds or retirement funds. Or, other brokerage accounts that you may not know of. Right How well do you know all the assets your family has You know probably the house they own and maybe their cars, but you don't know all their bank accounts or their insurance policies or their investments. And if somebody is trying to be clever they can be close to that person and snatch those assets or try to. before they get distributed properly. And usually the only reason they get away with it is because nobody looks, if you are a family member when somebody dies and you look properly at all the assets, you can catch it easy because there's no way to completely hide it It leaves a paper trail. And not only can you get those assets back but in many cases you can ask the court to have penalties put on that other person maybe. Getting a bigger share of the assets transferred to you or even get fees or legal costs for the time and effort you have to put into finding those assets So if you're a victim of inheritance step or you're just suspicious, That way somebody died or maybe they haven't died yet but you're suspicious in advance. Make sure you're getting a good handle on the assets Get good legal advice if you need it. Having an attorney involved if you think that's necessary. But also get a good asset search an asset. Inventory. To do forensics on the numbers to make sure that, you know somebody is not trying to get away with it And look, it's a matter of principle even if you don't think you need the money or. If you it's not that big a deal. You want to know if another family member is actually doing something that's not in your best interest because that might change how you deal with them in the future.