Legal advice?

[ray1970]

Who better to ask than you guys? Lol.

I may need an attorney to look into a company that my dad was involved in and that my brothers and I are legally entitled to his share of.

Anyway, the company and any court proceedings that may be necessary are in Texas.

Can an attorney from Colorado help me or do I need to reach out to one in Texas?

Also, should I be looking for an estate attorney or someone with corporate law experience.

Thanks for any thoughts or opinions.

[Clint45]

What part of Texas?

A Colorado attorney needs to be licensed to practice in Texas, otherwise the best he can do is evaluate your case and draft a letter... which may be all you need.

Estate attorney should be fine if all you want to do is liquidate his shares.

[ray1970]

Estate attorney should be fine if all you want to do is liquidate his shares.

I don?t even know if there are technically any shares. I think it is more of a partnership. The person in charge of distributing funds to the partners has been unwilling to explain the structure of the partnership or when, why, or how the funds are distributed or pretty much anything about what it is that my brothers and I inherited. The accountant kept reaching out to us wanting our personal information (including SSN) so that she could start distributing funds to us. I pretty much told her that until someone provides me with some sort of documentation as to what it is that I am getting myself into that they can just continue to make payments to ?the estate of? my father.

I retained a lawyer in the area in order to try and get information about the partnership but so far they took my money and have pretty much ghosted me so I may end up having to sue them in order to get my retainer back.

Looking like I might have to search out better lawyers in the Houston area and fork over more money to try and get this resolved.

[Oscar77]

Just my SWAG here:

Yes, find an Attorney...........in Texas.

You have several issues..........
Look thru your Fathers papers and see if you can find any papers related to it?
Look at your Fathers Tax returns to see what his portion was? Or even a Bank Statement?

Get a certified copy of his will outlining what/how his estate is being distributed.......... (ie thats your legal means of proving you are entitled to this company share or whatever it is).

Who is the Executor or Legal Representative of his Estate? His will or Colorado law should spell that out. (hopefully you are).

Then the Executor, and with Will/ Death Cert in hand, should approach the Companies legal dept and press the issue to find out exactly what your Fathers role was in the Company.

Then set it up in accordance with your Fathers will.

BTW............ Sorry for your loss. I'm working thru something similar myself........... thus my suggestions.

[ray1970]

I guess I should have mentioned he didn?t have a will. Without a will, anything that was his automatically goes to next of kin which is me and my brothers. One of my brothers is the executor of his estate. We picked him because he lives in Texas.

[Great-Kazoo]

I guess I should have mentioned he didn?t have a will. Without a will, anything that was his automatically goes to next of kin which is me and my brothers. One of my brothers is the executor of his estate. We picked him because he lives in Texas.

Better check on that, usually with no will, it goes to probate. Sadly it's a common, too common, belief when someone in the family passes. The next of kin automatically get what ever's in the estate.

If there's no paperwork / trail/ will, etc specifying what's in the estate, who is designated as heir's, distribution of assets, etc. the state steps in. If that's the case expect to pay $$ to the state. Our father had a will, outlining who gets what, except for the house.
State stepped in since no one was listed for the house. Costed $10K, plus some old permits from 30+ yrs prior the county never signed off on. That $300 (at the time) was now $1500 to have a "state designated" lic electrician come into review, inspect and sign off for something done decades ago, to code.
You might have to go to houston to get this sorted out.

[ray1970]

We already went through probate. Fairly certain our probate lawyer wasn?t successful in getting details of the partnership in question but I?m also pretty sure it was still listed along with his other assets.

[00tec]

Let me know who's kneecaps need busting Ray, only an hour and a half from your old digs.

[def90]

So basically there was a business that was set up as a partnership but there are no documents that show the terms of this partnership?

Was it a corp or llc? If so all of that stuff is supposed to be filed with the state that the corp or llc is filed in. If it was a simple sole proprietor type thing then depending on the business I would see if you can look at the books and see if it is worth even going after. If you are inhereting a portion of the business that also means that you are inherieting any liability and so on. The best way to deal with something like this is to have the business valued by an outside company and then have the business buy out your dads share of the company.

[Oscar77]

Oh ok...........OP:
My next suggestion is what def90 has said............ someone (the Company of course but they seem to be ignoring you in a way) has the legal documents (or certified copies) of how this was set up and your Fathers role in it.
Once you get that your Brother- the Executor of his Estate- can approach the company and get this figured out.