How complex can a will or testament be? How many resources will be expended to execute it? Is this process self-funding? Say, if it prescribes that assets should be disseminated only upon a condition, possibly many years in the future, can I be sure it will happen exactly as described? For example, can I award my legacy to someone who solves a certain equation (where the verification of this might be complex, and costly in time and money)?
A Last Will and Testament can be very complex. The longest and most complex one that I have drafted runs to about eighty pages. I've seen some in probate proceedings that run to about 120 pages, with additional exhibits of numerous pages containing legal descriptions for real property and serial numbers and account numbers for other assests. How many resources will be expended to execute it? Is this process self-funding? The fiduciaries appointed to carry out with implementing a Last Will and Testament in a probate proceeding spend whatever they need to spend to carry it out, to the extent that funds are available in the estate. The assets of the estate pay for these costs of estate administration. Say, if it prescribes that assets should be disseminated only upon a condition, possibly many years in the future, can I be sure it will happen exactly as described? You can't. You're dead. You nominate fiduciaries such as executives, personal representatives, administrators, guardians, conservators, trustees, custodians, and trust protectors to carry it out. They have fiduciary duties to faithfully carry out your instructions which interested persons, such as creditors and beneficiaries of the estate and trust protectors, can sue to enforce. In the case of charitable trusts, there is also a government official (in the United States, usually the state attorney general of the state in which the estate is administered) that has standing to enforce will and trust provisions for the benefit of a charity. There are certain legal doctrines that exist to discourage you from exercising &quot;dead hand&quot; control for too long. One of this is a very complicated rule known as the &quot;Rule Against Perpetuities&quot; which differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Another (in the U.S.) is a tax known as the Generation Skipping Transfer Tax. There are also legal doctrines that allow interested persons to apply to a court to modify or reform the terms of a probated will or trust, doctrines such as the cy pres doctrine to deal with cases where transfers to entities or persons that no longer exist are present, doctrines that invalidate certain dead hand directions (e.g. related to race or to marriage) as a matter of public policy, statutes that invalidate certain kinds of real estate ownership with remote possibilities of reversion to a remote relative (e.g. fee tail), and doctrines that allow will and trust provisions to be reformed because it is impracticable to carry the out the terms even if it isn't strictly speaking impossible to do so. For example, can I award my legacy to someone who solves a certain equation (where the verification of this might be complex, and costly in time and money)? Subject to the doctrines set forth above, yes, this is possible. The typical way to do this would be to establish a foundation to oversee this part of the legacy and to name someone such as the current holder of an endowed professorship, or the chair of a university department or scientific institute, as an arbitrator of the question of whether the condition was met (typically with instructions to pay for that service as an administrative cost or instructions that it be self-funded by the recipient of an endowment gift to an institution as a condition of receiving an endowment gift). If an arbitrator was not appointed, a court would typically appoint an expert known as a &quot;special master&quot; to investigate the question (as the expense of the parties seeking to be paid and the estate) to determine if the condition was met in the event that this was disputed, or to ratify that the condition was met, in the event that this was not disputed. The &quot;special master&quot; would then investigate the matter and issue a report after receiving input from all parties and any independent investigation that was authorized by the order appointing the special master, and the report to the court would recommend a resolution. The parties could tell the court whether they disputed the special master's finding, and if so why, and the court would almost always adopt the special master's recommendation on the basis of that report. I have seen this process used in cases involving complex tax questions in probate court. Another common way to do this would be to establish a donor advised fund in a &quot;community foundation&quot; which is a foundation shared by many donors with a common administrative staff and investment pool that administers foundation-like funds from particular donors according to the substantive terms of the fund. There are examples of things similar to this (such as the Nobel Prize) being done. When I was in law school, there was a popular urban legend, I don't know if it was true or not, but it could have been true, that the dining hall in the law school (at the University of Michigan where I took my meals for my first year in law school) was endowed on the condition that steak be served every Friday. True or not, the steak was always there on Fridays.
As of present moment, under no circumstances. That said, the law may and probably will change around that. But the time has not come just yet. Trying to predict what the law will be is out of scope of this site.
IMHO, your questions reflect several misunderstandings of how the process works. So, with your permission, I will avoid directly answering your questions and instead focus on suggestions how to best help you plot a path forward. Your counterparty has the burden of proof. If your counterparty forged your signature on a contract, then they must prove you signed it or they can not enforce it. In order to enforce the contract, they will need to sue you civilly. Then you can introduce evidence of their forgery at that time. Inform your counterparty you did not sign the contract. Then act accordingly. If your counterparty forged your signature on an extension contract then you should inform them immediately after it has come to your attention. Advise them you have no intention of complying with a contract you never signed. And that if they try to enforce the forged agreement, you will defend yourself "vigorously." Never threaten criminal charges to advance your position in a civil case. This behavior is a crime in itself. It's called extortion. If you want to pursue criminal charges at some point then do it without relating it to the civil case. The police are not your only means of pursuing criminal charges. You can also schedule a meeting with your District Attorney, State's Attorney (whatever that position is called in your state) or your state's Attorney General. In other words, you might want to approach the government's attorney responsible for prosecuting crimes in your jurisdiction. Forget about involving the police. They have given you their position on the matter. Approach the DA or AG office instead. If the DA/AG decides to use the police, she we will make that decision then inform the police how she needs to use their services. Police are wary of being used as leverage in civil disputes. That's probably the reason for their policy decision regardless of whether it's technically justified by the law or not. Your counterparty can't "fix" anything. If they claim you signed a document you did not, they will have to produce that document with your signature on it. This will presumably be your Exhibit A evidence they forged it. Disclaimer: I am a lay person and not an attorney. This writing is no substitute for proper legal advice. If you need help with a specific legal situation please hire an attorney and do not rely on anything I have written here.
Often one chooses your accountant, your financial advisor, or your lawyer. Another option is to appoint the trust department of a bank. I personally, as a lawyer, have a policy of not consenting to do that except in rare cases like the one in this question, of a client who just doesn't have anyone and has an estate sufficiently small that a bank trust department would not be cost effective or well suited to handling some aspect of the executorship. But, I have done it a few times in those cases. Most lawyers I know of take a similar position. If no executor is designated, your estate will usually be administered either by a large unpaid creditor, or by the public administrator (whose job is primarily to administer estates in cases where there are no next of kin, no executor has been designated, and there are no unpaid creditors who have stepped up to do the job).
A deed executed during life trumps a will. The other siblings would have to argue: Your mom did not have the capacity to execute the deed (which is a very low standard in terms of her capacity). The deed was procured from undue influence from you (which requires them to meet a high bar of proof). The deed was really the implementation of an agreement for you to hold the property in trust for everyone (which requires some affirmative evidence of this intent).
First, agree w/Dale M re: it would be an egregious and likely career-ending move for an attorney to fake his representation. That said, there is likely no reason why you would be unable to request such proof of representation. Your job consists of protecting the assets of the trust, carrying out any other duties outlined in the trust document, being honest and in communication with the trust's beneficiary, managing the assets, and ending the trust as determined by the trust document. Several of those points (particularly the "protecting the assets" part) argue heavily in favor of your confirming the veracity of any claims involving the trust and/or the identity or true intent of those seeking any information, etc., with respect to the trust. Also, demand letters are letters stating a legal claim and usually asks for restitution or performance of an obligation. It's not entirely clear what constitutes a "demand letter requesting information" unless you have a legal duty to provide that information (and this would - or should - be stated in the demand letter itself). Finally, should you be unable to obtain the confirmation you're seeking, you should consider consulting a trust administration attorney. In most cases, you may use trust assets to pay for expert help (including tax preparers and accountants).
Do the exchanges need to check with each government to make sure the information is valid? Or is submitting documents enough? They need to understand the (usually very complicated) laws governing financial services and data protection in every jurisdiction where they operate. The specific requirements will vary from one jurisdiction to the next. The usual way of acquiring this understanding is to hire a lawyer (or several).
If the owner of the intellectual property leaves property subject to the jurisdiction of the state of Washington, and it is determined that the owner is dead and has no heirs, then per RCW 11.08.140 it is designated escheat property. Then the following sections specify that title to the property vests in the state. The Department of Revenue has jurisdiction over that property, which has the duty to protect and conserve the property for the benefit of the permanent common school fund. There is no general answer to the question of what would best benefit the school fund. Any form of giving it away would not benefit the school fund, at least if there was an viable option for sale / licensing. There are provisions that relate to the possibility that an heir is eventually uncovered, but I will assume that no heir ever appears. Ohio law is similar. The decendant's property escheats to the state in case there is no heir. Then under ORC 2105.07, the prosecuting attorney of the county in which letters of administration are granted upon such estate shall collect and pay it over to the county treasurer. Such estate shall be applied exclusively to the support of the common schools of the county in which collected.