Bob
Bolin's Estate
Bob and Donna Bolin are
both spinning in their graves at the division of their assets. When
Bob's mother died someone did about the same thing to him and his
siblings. He flew into a rage over the theft and never wanted what
he left behind to be handled in this manor.
After Donna died and
Bob was sick we(the 4 children)chose Marjorie to pay his bills and
take care of his finances. She was unemployed and had an accounting
background. Even after he was incapacitated he demanded to see his
bank statements. He used to tell me and my wife Diana to watch how
his money was being spent because he did not trust Marjorie. We both
discounted what he was telling us because at the time he was also
seeing things like gigantic cockroaches crawling on the walls that
weren't there. Marjorie had never given us any reason not to trust
her but he may have known something we didn't and we should have
listened to him ( I'm sorry Dad).
Bob died in March of
2008. From a note my mother left
before her death in 2004 their assets included their house,
bank account, IRAs, insurance, also cars and belongings. His Will
stated that all of his assets were to be split equally between his 4
children.
Bob had full time
caregivers. Their expense and normal household expenses were just
covered by Bob's pension and social security, at least that's what I
was told by Marjorie. Any extra expenses would have to come from his
savings. There was some work done on the house prior to his death
but not enough to drain his accounts.
I had promised my
mother that after they were gone I would do everything I could to
keep the house in the family. That was important to her. My sisters
and I had talked several times over the years about keeping the
house as a family vacation property for everyone to use.
After Bob's death
Marjorie(the executor) hired an attorney. I believed it was to set
up a family trust to handle the house and money. In that time sorely
needed repairs were started. The idea I thought, was to improve the
house for the family's use. What other reason would there be for
putting time, money and effort into a
rundown nearly 100 year old property with dangerous structural and electrical
problems? Nothing was being done to fix those serious problems. The
cosmetic repairs being made would not increase the value of the
house. I also thought the money for the repairs was coming out
of Bob's bank accounts.
I asked for a full
accounting of the money on several occasions during the summer and
fall of 2008. Marjorie always put me off saying she did not
have time to put everything together and she was consumed with
family related problems. I was also told the house had not been
transferred or the estate settled because the attorney was dragging
his heals. She kept saying she would call him and push things along.
My sisters decided they
needed to find out what the house was worth so an appraiser was
hired. They had some pie in the sky idea the house was worth several
hundred thousand because it was on a lake and they had begun to
build in the town, Sheryl mentioned to me how much other people had
been offered for their houses. Most of it rumor but she thought it
was true. This was before the crash and I thought we would be
lucky to get ninety thousand. As it turned out the appraisal came in at $85,000.00. Donna decided she didn't want to
participate with the rest of the family and she demanded her money,
as she put it.
At the end of the day
joint taping and finishing was all that was left and I said I would
work several evenings to finish. Diana, Matt and me did just that.
We spent a few evenings working on the walls. Sheryl decided she
wanted wood flooring in the kitchen so I found a good deal and we
were going to install it also. Sheryl then decided she wanted her
friend to install the flooring(she had this guy do her basement and
she strongly wanted to have him do the job.) Sheryl and Marjorie
decided to have him install the floor, he told them he could finish
and paint the walls for little extra and they decided to let him do
it. Sheryl wanted to use the house and she wanted it done as quickly
as possible. Marjorie
later lied again and told the court I abandoned the job and they
were forced to hire a person to finish. She failed to mention to the court that
she authorized me to make additional repairs. I gave her receipts
for supplies and equipment to make those repairs during the time
they were finishing work and she told the court I had abandoned the
house. I was there every couple of days to move things along and get
the house done. Finally after this guy not getting the job done in a
timely manor and being told to redo work that was done poorly they
had to fire him. I had to go in again and complete the floors before
the cabinets were installed. After a couple of weeks of me
working evening and weekends the repairs were done. They were all
cosmetic. Nothing structural or electrical had been fixed. I was
lead to believe all of the repairs were paid for from Bob's bank
accounts. Donna even complained to me about spending all of dad's
money and draining her inheritance. Marjorie
later claimed in court documents all of the money was from her
personal account and Bob had no bank accounts when he died.
In March 2009 Diana got
a call from Sheryl, the 3 sisters wanted her to go behind my back to
a meeting with them. She of course immediately refused and came to
me. The three of them decided they were going to sell the house,
they thought they would make big bucks. Diana and I think they
wanted to try to manipulate her into convincing me to just submit to
everything they had planned in secret.(You
three need to understand that when we were together all the hushed
conversations that were suddenly stopped when we walked by were
well noticed ).
I had always maintained
that if they wanted to sell the house I would buy it. It's my
opinion that my three sisters did not like that idea at all. I
believe they had ideas of getting rich by selling it to some
developer. I knew the house's problems and wasn't going to pay some
pie in the sky amount just because they had delusions about what it
was worth. I had no problem paying a truly fair amount or a little
more for the house. This was now after the crash and property values
had dropped quite a bit. I told them I would pay $85,000.00. What it
was appraised prior to the crash, almost a year before. They said
no, they wanted more. I told them the cosmetic repairs wouldn't
increase the houses value but they refused to listen. Ultimately I
offered them $100,000.00 cash. It was then that Sheryl
"decided" she wanted the house, I was told the house was going
to the highest bidder. I did not trust my sisters at this point and
I strongly felt she was there only to up bid me and drive up the
price. I was already willing to pay $15,000.00 above the appraised
value for a rundown property with massive structural and electrical
problems. Just because I told my mother I would keep it in the
family. It did not make sense to go higher, My mother is dead and I
do have my own children to care for. I offered to give my sisters
each a $25,000.00 cashiers check right away for the
house.(100,000.00 divided 4 ways)- cash in their pockets right now.
They refused. Instead I
was sent a purchase contract with extremely bad terms and I would
not sign it. It required me to give them $10,000.00 earnest money
then forfeit all inheritance claims on it. Meaning they would
divide the money up between themselves. That same
requirement was not in Sheryl's agreement. Their only purpose was to screw me, this
was all just a game. They were trying to steel everything they
could. I withdrew my offer.
During that summer I
was locked out of the house. While they continued to use it.
Ultimately Sheryl ended
up with the house for $100,000.00 and she had to get a loan because
she didn't have the money. She ended up needing the house because
once her then husband found out what she was doing he was so
appalled he threw her out.
Could anything be done
fairly without being challenged in court? I didn't think so. I got
the unsupervised administration over turned and converted to
supervised. They had to submit documents to the court. I did get
some of the answers they were hiding but not all. The one thing
that's for sure is that the Indiana courts don't give a damn about
making sure anything is accurate. The court made it very plain it
doesn't want to be bothered looking for the truth, it just doesn't
care.
I my opinion they kept
dragging out the settlement, kept manipulating the numbers, their
lawyer fees reached more than $17,000.00. I had to go to court and
demand the exorbitant fees be lowered, they ended up at $12,000.00.
The lawyer got more than I did from my fathers estate.
Marjorie also demanded $4600.00 on top of everything else she took.
I had to fight to get that amount lowered also. Bob died in March of
2008 and I did not receive any settlement or closer until February
2011. Almost 3 years.
The three sisters gave
my daughter Rosemary Bob's car for her Birthday. I originally
offered to pay for the car and got it appraised . It was worth
$750.00. They said no, It's a gift for her and Marjorie handed over
the title to be transferred. Later they claimed they did not give it
to her and took it back. They added it onto the settlement and
deducted it from my portion. In other words they spit in the face of
my child. That I can never forgive. To add insult they made me pay
each of them $250.00 when proceeds should have been split 4 ways. So
they not only spit in her face they essentially took more money from
her.
My full inheritance
was to be passed on and split between my three children on my
death. This is a theft from them that can never be excused nor
forgiven. My sisters are true trailer trash.
____________________________________________________________________________
Bob's will stated that
his assets were to be split equally 4 ways. This is what they think
is equal and they received:
Marjorie M
Zemkewicz $98,750.52 (some of
Bob's missing checking account)
+ $58,395.31 (bills paid from
Bob's accounts she said she paid.)
+ $10,790.97 (estate settlement)
+ $4,000.00 (her fee)
=$171,193.68 + the missing IRAs (amount unknown
- she refused to produce records).
Sheryl L
Stapinski =
$10,790.97 + her cut from the above missing accounts.
Donna L
Cox
= $10,790.97 + her cut from the above missing accounts.
David B
Bolin
= $10, 040.96.
Yes the house sold for
$100,000.00 but Marjorie claimed all his bills were paid by her.
Leaving $49,063.86 to be split
up.
