We have an estate issue. Thoughts?

[es330td]

My spouse's grandmother died last year. Because of some bad feelings between various family members concerning the death a few years ago of my wife's father (grandmother's son) my wife is about to be denied through the actions of her aunt (only other sibling of father) a low five figure cash inheritence she was supposed to receive. It is known without question that about a year before she died the grandmother owned a home valued at about $100K and securities valued at over $200K. An attorney handling the estate has notified my wife that funds sufficient to cover her bequest do not exist in the estate. We believe that through some legal motions unknown to us the grandmother's assets were transferred to wife's aunt bypassing the estate. We thought that whatever was done will probably pass legal scrutiny and we are just out of luck.

A month ago, however, we received a letter from the attorney that my wife is supposed to sign waiving her right to a "First and Final Accounting" of the estate. I can't seem to find any good information about what this is but my gut tells me that if we say we want one we can make life difficult for the aunt who snatched all the property because she basically took possession of everything without really keeping track since she viewed it all as being "hers" to do with as she pleased as the sole surviving child.

In my ideal world, I would like to find some way to force the aunt to go through a lot of work to close this estate or buy us off to sign away our rights. Can someone tell me what a "First and Final Accounting" actually make the executrix/lawyers do and how much difficulty it is going to be for someone who just rapidly emptied the house without inventory to ready it for rental to paying tenants?

Thanks.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If your wife believes the estate was not properly managed, obviously she would not want to waive the accounting. Your wife should consider consulting a lawyer about how to assert and protect her claim.