Help/Advise for 4 Surviving Children after Death of their 45 year old father, a FedEx CONTRACTOR

Please advise. FedEx Routes are owned and registered in State of Missouri and Operate in State of Illinois.

February 2008: My husband and I purchase PSA's from FedEx Ground as independent contractors for approximately $260,000 and form LLC.

2008-2011: We operate our PSA's which include day drivers and night shuttles. It is sustainable and the business pays all employees, maintains trucks, pays the loan payment, and there are some dispersements to us, as we are owners/operators.

February 2011: My husband and I were forced to buy/sell/or combine our PSA's with another contractor's PSA's. We combined with another FedEx independent contractor (husband and wife) and formed an Inc. (My husband is listed to have 20% interest, I am listed to have 20% interest, the husband of our new partnership is listed to have 30% interest, the wife of our new partnership is listed to have 30% interest.)

2011-2015: All Registration Reports filed correctly with all names included. However, the 2nd husband and wife partner begin to take over the Cooperation. They change addresses, remove both my husband and I from checking accounts, change debit cards, remove our names from vehicle titles, do not include our names on new vehicles as they are replaced, and eventually stop making dispursements to us.

2016-2021: My name (wife) is removed from the annual registration reports. My husband's name has remained, and he did not receive any dispursements to my knowledge.

2018: My husband and I divorce and I do not bother with the FedEx contract. I do reach out to the husband and wife partner prior to the divorce and ask to sell my 20% interest to them. The husband and wife laugh at me and say I was removed/cut off from the Cooperation long ago, they have been running the contract without myself and without my ex-husband to be, and nothing is owed to myself, nor him. Since the $260,000 loan has paid itself off, I let it go. I contact lawyers and advisors and am advised to let it go as the lawyers retainer is $10,000 for this matter and it will likely never be resolved and I will likely never receive anything.

Today in 2022: My ex-husband is still listed on the Annual Registration Report. My ex-husband also passed away unexpectedly in 2022 at the age of 45. We were married for 20 years and have 4 children together. 3 children are still minors.

My ex-husbands estate is in Probate at a Circuit Court with our children listed as heirs. Creditors have CERTAINLY submitted their claims against his estate ($25,000 in ER fees and $78,000 for his Life Flight/Air Evac, as well as additional claims all totaling $253,000 so far, not including court/lawyer fees).

But what about the possibility of this FedEx Asset?

Do ANYONE know if ANYTHING can be done in this strange situation?

I have every document to prove every statement I have made.

Even in this broken world, I know God is still good.

 

Well two things
first thing is get a good family law lawyer to see how you may be owed from the estate or how to protect yourself from any liabilities from the mess. If it costs $10k, well it may be better than being listed on the court papers as a stock holder and having to deal with that.

I don’t understand how the other two “partners” displaced you if you were a stock holder in the company, this seems to be odd, even with a majority stock holders being the other couple, they still can’t just oust other stock holders without notice or compensation, but that’s for a good corporate lawyer to figure out.

Outside of that, you won’t get proper legal advice from this site unfortunately.

 

Sorry for your loss - but this definitely sounds like a case for an attorney. Check with your state trucking association for recommendation .

 

I’m sorry to hear of the loss.


The medical bills will magically be lowered once the folks that want the money realize
The person named on the bill has no insurance or assets .
They will likely accept 6 or 10 percent of the total as payment in full if there’s is money available in your ex husbands estate to pay the bills , but if there is no money in his bank accounts or home equity etc , then the creditors don’t get anything.

you need an attorney with experience in business contracts etc

If you have any assets that creditors could go after , you will have to have some advice for the probate hearing .
But usually the creditors get nothing unless your ex husband had substantial assets , that could be sold to pay the outstanding bills .

the children may be listed as heirs but they won’t have any responsibility for the bills .

you will have to hire an attorney to help you navigate this situation. Since some assets like IRAs and 401s etc are exempt from bankruptcy and probate creditors .

do not attempt to probate this without an attorney . Doing so could be giving away money that belongs to the children .