My father (I am his only child) was cared for by my uncle in the last three years of his life. I thought he did this out of generosity and sacrifice but I now believe he may have been motivated by the $2700 per month my father collected from his full disability with the Veterans association. My father deeply disliked his brother but after a stroke and severe mental illness issues he was in no condition to refuse an offer of help. He was living on the street when my uncle took him in and as I was estranged from my father for several decades it seemed like a good deed at the time. During the three years he lived with my uncle I visited his house three or four times a year.
My uncles wife of thirty years is a multimillionaire and they live in stunning luxury. Still, she keeps my uncle financially dependent on her and he has little cash in hand other then what she gives him. Often he told me about some land he owned with my father in Texas and that I would inherit half of this on my fathers passing. He also told me that my father had two storage facilities with many rare antiques in them from Civil War swords that were in the family for over a century to other unusual items. These also he said was going to be my inheritance one day. I think he told me this to bind me to him and my father since he was afraid that with my fathers health declining he might need more help with his care. I was glad to help since I liked my uncle and although he and my father was absent most of my life I was happy to reconnect with a new family.
When my father recently died however and without a will my uncles attitude changed dramatically towards me. I went to his apartment for the funeral and stayed in a guest room with my girlfriend. This was the room my father had lived in. There was a bedbug in the bed and we moved to another room since there are other guest rooms in the house. The day of the funeral my uncle raged that we imagined the bed bug and that we should go to a hotel if we did not like it in his house. We made a hasty departure after the funeral.
A few days later I asked my uncle when we would go to the storage facilities and he said we would go together a few months later in the spring since it was too cold now and they were in another state far away. In the intervening months he hardly called. Once when we were talking he said he was living on my fathers money since his wife did not give him very much. I realized he meant that he was living on the money left over in my fathers bank account before he died. He confessed that he had taken an unspecified amount of money out a month before my father died when he went into the hospital after a heart attack. I said nothing since I still wanted to maintain the relationship and figured that he deserved it somehow for taking care of my father for three years. However when spring came and I asked to go to the storage facilities he said he had already gone there without me and there was absolutely nothing of value there. He changed the name on the storage facilities at the same time he took the money from my fathers account since he was my fathers POA. Now that I see he would deny me everything of my fathers despite his promises and disrespect my rights in this way I am inclined to act to defend my position as my fathers son and sole heir since he died intestate.
Can anyone advice me how to proceed?
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Second, think about exactly what you want want to accomplish and achieve, and how it would be done.
If the funds are gone, and likely the heirlooms are gone as well, you would have to have proof of the amounts of the first and the existence of the second in order to claim malfeasance on the part of your uncle.
Third, you have only your uncle's word that you would have inherited various items.
Fourth, I'm not really sure what could be accomplished and how you would "defend your position." You'd have to prove that your uncle converted the funds to his own use and confiscated the heirlooms, etc. If you don't know how much money your father had and what the heirlooms are, the issue of proof and existence becomes paramount.
I can understand that you feel cheated but I'm really not sure how you could go about recouping what was lost without proof first of its existence and secondly of improper, unlawful conversion. I don't think you have sufficient grounds or evidence for a civil suit.