Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Today's question comes from

David in Massachusetts. My father suddenly passed away recently and did not make the will he always

planned to create. He owned five properties and only two have mortgages. He also owned a business

with a partner which brings in close to

one million in residuals annually. My mother is not in the picture, and I have an older brother who

has a substance abuse problem. My father did not inherit any money from his parents and built all

this from the ground up, so I want to honor him by making sure none of this goes to waste.

My brother will waste away his half of the inheritance on drugs if he gets access to it.

My name will be the only one on the death certificate, and our attorney will file for me to be the head of his estate.

Is there anything I can legally do to prevent my brother from getting a lump sum.

You need to seek legal counsel that really knows what they're doing.

No, I doubt it.

I think he's going to get his lump sum unless he's declared incompetent by the court,

unable to take care of his own affairs.

And just being stupid or doing drugs is not going to cause that to happen.

Stupid immature drug person is not going to, that's not incompetent by legal terms.

My mother's not in the picture.

She is now.

If they were married, or if they were married at the time of his death, she's very much in the picture, whether you want her to be or not.

So, again, we're not attorneys in Massachusetts, so you need legal advice in Massachusetts where you are.

And my suspicion is Massachusetts has some wicked crazy probate laws because there's some other stuff on the books

there this wild and so I wouldn't surprise me a bit but you need to find out

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