Hello again everyone!
I have posted a couple of times before about a situation involving my aunt being the trustee of my mother’s mineral rights and my suspicion that our properties were mishandled or transferred or sold over the 13 years she was in charge.
I have gone back and forth with how much time and effort I should spend on this and/or how to get to the bottom of these concerns. I did end up hiring a Texas Attorney to help us but several thousand dollars later; I have come to realize that we somehow shifted from having him help us research what happened to now, looking to sell, as we have been put in a bind with a family member and need money.
2 months ago, I was told by our attorney that our portfolio had an approx value of a million dollars. We were/are needing to come up with $450k or so. I was advised that while it might take some time; the money was there and could be procured, for sure.
With this information, we proceeded with an investment transaction and closed a deal in which we have 11 months to sell our properties and come up with money. Yet, now that this agreement is on we have entered into a contract for the investment… we are not getting much interest from potential buyers, and the offers my attorney has been looking at - are far from where they need to be or where we thought they would be.
I am aware that oil is low and now is not a good time to be selling. I can’t say I was necessarily privy to this 2 months ago, but I most certainly am now. Nonetheless, we may not have much choice, as the investment situation is in effect and the “train has left the station” if you will.
So… upon realizing that our options were not as open as I was assured they were; I told my attorney to see if we could get more prospective buyers/interest if instead of selling “some” of our properties; we put it out there as a packaged deal - meaning all of it. This was mostly in an effort to give us a more accurate representation of what our portfolio value actually is.
Last week, my attorney forwarded me a letter from one of the companies he was “holding out for”, thinking they would be our hail mary I guess? The letter stated that “I hate to say it, but I think we have to bow out. Most of your client’s interest isn’t large enough to justify running title on our end. I’m only showing three tracts that have more than 5/NRAs.”
Not good. At all.
So here’s my question/problem/thoughts:
I’ve always known that we own small interests. But no more than 3 tracts with 5 NMAs?
Something isn’t right.
I am somewhat new to this and will not pretend that I know what I’m doing when it comes to , but I have a slight idea of how it works. And I can say that a simple search on texasfile.com under my grandmother’s trust has multiple properties with over 600,000 acres. This should have been split evenly between 4 sisters; my mother being one of them.
Starr 1982 Trust Texas FIle.png.pdf (149.3 KB)
If you run a search of my mother’s name; almost every property is listed as 0 acres??? I know this isn’t definitive information and I know that acreage listed on Texasfile is not the same as NMA. But here’s the other catch:
When my grandfather and great uncle, John & William Healey passed: they conveyed their interest directly to each family member individually. As far as I can tell; my Grandmother didn’t receive anything from them at any point. So why there was even a trust under my grandmother’s name at all seems peculiar. And as I write this; it has donned on me to look into how long my this Starr Trust existed and sure enough; the data starts in 2013… and ends in 2014 - one year. So this trust was created 4/5 years AFTER my mother passed and was only active for a year - yet has 6 pages of search results?!? Which equates to roughly 300 recorded activities within that time.
My aunt who was the Trustee/ Personal Representative of my mother’s will - was also the Trustee of this supposed “Grandmother trusts”. So anything that was recorded has her name on it.
This is my theory:
My aunt put most of my mother’s assets into my mom’s Estate. (I say most because there are results on TexasFile under my mother’s name as an individual aka has the (I) behind it vs (T) - those interests are registered to my aunt’s address; under my aunt’s name… shady right?) She then established my mother’s trust and transferred the assets into it from the Estate. 4 years later, she creates this 1982 Trust - at which time she redispersed a 1/4 interest BACK to each one of the 4 sisters; leaving us with only 1/4 of what we rightfully own.
I have also come to realize that she went back to some of the counties we no longer seem to have ANY rights at all and filed Probate and Affidavit of Heirship - basically sealing my mother’s assets and releasing herself from legal recourse for her actions during the she was Trustee.
As a personal representative who was able to act “without bond” in my mother’s Last Will and Testimony, all of this may be and likely is deemed legal. But the other part of that is that as a Trustee; there is a fiduciary responsibility to what is in the best interest of the beneficiaries, right? I just don’t know how legally binding that statement is. Especially in comparison of her ability to act without bond or “approval for or of the courts”?
I hope that by posting this on here; someone may be able to offer me further insight, opinions, or advice on what they find. Either in looking down the line of ownership/title, or what my NMA should be in any given county or tract, or how I should proceed, or where to go to find more information… anything. Anything and everything helps at this point. The folks of this community and on this forum have never steered me wrong before; I’m confident you folks won’t lead me astray now either.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and for responding as well.
I don’t know where I’d be without this Forum of brilliant minds and beautiful souls!!!