I'm sorry to keep asking but we really need prayer again.

I've already posted requesting prayers for the home, offer, etc. God blessed, the sellers accepted our offer and things are going smoothly on that end. I Praise God for that. Now we've hit a glitch dealing with the estate attorney's office of all things.

The estate attorney hasn't done any actual work on my FIL's estate. Instead his wife, who is out of office virtually every single week and who is NOT an attorney of any sort, has done the filing for probate and then wasn't even available for the probate hearing.

My FIL put his house in a trust (avoids probate, judges etc.) and it has been sold with the funds deposited into a trust account, minus a little over 2000 dollars beyond closing costs which I can only assume is her (husband's) fee for sticking her fingers into the sale of the home.

Originally my sister in law, who is the first administrator of the trust, said that this woman would be back from her latest vacation this coming Thursday and then the funds could be divided among the 3 sisters. We put in an offer with a closing date of 31 Oct or earlier based on this (mis)information. Now the woman is trying to say the funds can be dispensed no earlier than mid November.

The estate tax HAVE to be filed by 19 Nov at the very latest or penalties, etc. take place.

MY understanding of Ohio law is that the attorney has nothing to do with the trust outside of council IF the adminstrator requests it and the administrator is not obligated to follow the attorney's recommendations. I also understand that it's not required the funds be held until estate taxes are filed. My wife and I had recommended to pay the estate tax out of the trust before dispensing the funds which the sister in law seems to be following now that the attorney's wife has suggested it, but now the attorney's wife has interjected herself into the handling of the trust and seems to be trying to drag out the settling of the trust until the absolute last day for estate tax filing.

Needless to say, my family and I are tired of being without a permanent home. We are supposed to leave this camp ground on Tuesday. It's already getting so cold that my sleeping bag isn't working to keep the chill off. There's not enough room for everyone in the camper so I am pretty much forced to sleep outside so the wife and children can have warmth during the night. No one wants to rent us a home without a contract that obligates us to 6 months to a year. We asked the sellers if we could rent that home (it's vacant) until closing, the husband was willing to but after discussing it with his wife said that they couldn't because of "insurance issues".

We were hoping to close this week or next but need the estimated funds from the sale of the home. Everything I've read on the internet tells me that essentially the trust administrator can dispense funds from the trust whenever the funds are available. They've been available for quite some time now and they've had an estimated figure for the estate tax.

My understanding on the estate tax is that you go to a cpa just like you would for your income tax and file the estate tax through them but the attorney's wife seems to be telling my sister in law differently, almost as if she just enjoys controlling the entire process even when she has no legal authority.

Our next option is for me to take a 10,000 loan out on my car and then dip into our living expense money and then HOPE that the attorney's wife doesn't find some way to continue dragging this out beyond November, and then repay the loan once we have the funds available.

I was hoping to avoid this as it would put us way to tight and would put us at the mercy of an attorney's wife who seems bent on dragging this out far longer than it has to. She's failed to file papers several times which would have allowed the probate to be settled back by July at the latest had she done her husband's job properly.

It's estimated that we'll receive about 22,000 from the sale of the home. We'll still have to use some of our living expense money but not nearly as much as we will have to if they continue to drag this out.

I'm planning to try to call an attorney in Youngstown tomorrow to find out if there's any thing we can do to force them to file the estate tax now instead of waiting on this woman to find time between her vacations to do something my sister in law should be having a cpa do.

My wife is 2nd administrator but I can't see that we have grounds yet for her to step in.

Please pray for God's direction in our lives on this and an intervention on the house situation. I don't want to have to take out a loan and be at the mercy of the Attorney's wife and my sister in law for funds that will have to go back into our living expenses to see us through mid year next year.

If anyone knows of any information we can use to prod the attorney's wife to get her into gear I'd greatly appreciate the direction.

Glen F