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I hired him to minimize my stress as executor of mom's estate, and he's ended up being the cause of most of my stress. After my mother passed, I was overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being her executor. I wanted to make sure that everything was done legally and that obligations were met timely, so I hired the attorney who had last updated her will to handle the estate. His specialty is real estate and wills and estates. He was the only attorney I recommended to my clients when I was a full time realtor, because he was so good and his office was very timely and responsive. I met with him for an initial meeting, and he even offered me a slight discount on his hourly rate, because I had referred so many clients to him in the past.
My first clue that this experience would be different should have been when it then took 3 weeks and many phone calls to get a copy of a retainer letter so that I could actually officially hire him. It's been downhill from there. The paralegal who he has doing most of the actual work is incompetent - letters he says he sent never arrive, typos, numerical mistakes, etc. When I met with the attorney early on to express these concerns, he charged me through the nose for the meeting, but nothing changed. After almost a year of this, I've pretty much reached the end of my rope. On the 16th I received a cover letter from his office, dated 4/9 and postmarked 4/14, which was just slapped on top of a letter from the state auditor who is auditing the estate and inheritance tax return. Basically, it took them 2 weeks to send me a letter which then just asks me to do all the work. I have been working to compile the supporting information requested by the auditor; it's literally hundreds of pages. I tried calling his office to ask how best to handle/streamline the process, but, of course, my call was not returned. My stomach has been in a knot for over a week now over this, and I've also got insomnia. I also take care of my 93 year old aunt. At this point I am seriously contemplating firing him and just handling the audit myself. Any suggestions/experiences are highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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An estate attorney is not the same as a tax auditing attorney or accountant. The accountant who did the return for you is obligated to assist with an audit process. If you did the return on your own, there may be errors or omissions. This happens rather often, because the person who has all the financial information is no longer with us, but the auditors are able to uncover financial data that even the Executor is not aware of. "hundreds of pages" tells me this is a complex estate and by golly I would want a CPA helping me.
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No accountant was involved. The estate attorney's office prepared the Estate and Inheritance Tax returns. I actually have an accounting degree and worked in both corporate and public accounting, specializing in state taxes, for many years. I do not have experience in Estate Taxes (which is why I hired the attorney), but I used to specialize in audit defense for other types of taxes.
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