Family members may have grievances with each other, but an Executor cannot just alter the distribution of assets.
An Executor does not have the authority to make things equal between family members, unless it is strictly within the law, according to the Napa Valley Register in "Can mom make son pay debt?"
The article was about an Executor who was the child of the deceased and charged with distributing equal shares. However, one of the siblings had borrowed money from the deceased over the years and never paid any of it back. Unfortunately, unless there is documentation of the loans, there is little chance the Executor can take that information into consideration.
There are several problems with what the Executor might want to do. Among them is that the “loans” were most likely gifts and not loans. The mother may have “loaned” the money to the sibling, knowing that it would never be paid back, which makes it a gift.
If loans are undocumented, there is no way to prove they happened without a court battle. Even if they were considered loans and not gifts, they could be well outside the applicable statute of limitations.
To say the least, properly characterizing and memorializing a transaction as either a loan or a gift is absolutely essential to avoiding problems. Whenever a transfer of money from one family member to another is involved, the parties should clearly indicate whether it is a gift or a loan, and document it accordingly.
An experienced estate planning and administration attorney can properly advise you whenever the issues noted above arise.
Reference: Napa Valley Register (Oct. 26, 2017) "Can mom make son pay debt?"
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