Conservation Easement
I am a 1/3 heir, along with my siblings respectively receiving 1/3 also. We are to share and share alike. First, it states that the executrix may sell any and all property belonging to the estate, but not divide any of the real estate. The it goes on to state that her power includes the power to ”donate a conservation easement on all or part of my real property to a qualified organization, of my Executor’s choosing.. 1.Is it legal for the executrix to have rewritten and signed the will for my father while she was legal power of attorney and he was in diminished mental capacity? 2.Can she enter us into a binding conservation easement when 2/3 of the heirs are adamately opposed to it? 3.Who can contest the will itself since there is a poison pill clause? 4. Does the attorney she hired to represent her (paid by estate funds) who wrote the will, owe a responsibility to all heirs in the estate?
Re: Conservation Easement
1.Is it legal for the executrix to have rewritten and signed the will for my father while she was legal power of attorney and he was in diminished mental capacity?
A power of attorney does not grant authority to sign a will on behalf of the grantor. She may have re-written the will but she couldn’t sign for your father.
2.Can she enter us into a binding conservation easement when 2/3 of the heirs are adamately opposed to it?
If the will is valid, and she is the executrix as determined by the probate court, she can. She is following the will.
3.Who can contest the will itself since there is a poison pill clause?
Any one with an actual or potential interest in your father’s estate. If the will is deemed invalid, the poison pill clause goes away as well.
4. Does the attorney she hired to represent her (paid by estate funds) who wrote the will, owe a responsibility to all heirs in the estate?
The attorney doesn’t have any duty to the heirs. The duty was to your father, and now to your father’s estate.
Peter Bradie
Bradie, Bradie & Bradie
6606 FM 1488, Suite 148-363
Magnolia, TX 77354-2544