It will be a fight to the finish

Following up to a story we picked up earlier this month, the settlement of the estate of Mary Kass the Provincetown artist died last March is going to be a long slog. The fight started even before she died between her caretakers and her immediate heirs, a niece and nephew.



The judge has rejected the Kass heirs petition to be executors and Merrill Lynch who had been serving as co-trustee with caretaker Elizabeth Vallari has requested that she be removed. Furthermore, because of the estate's extensive art collection, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has gotten involved to represent the National Gallery of Art, who was bequeathed her $26 art collection. That part of the case will likely be sent to federal court in Boston.

So the judge has taken the action away from the contestants and appointed a local independent CPA as special administrator to manage the affairs of the estate until it can be settled.

“I think this case is in for the long haul, unfortunately. I think it cries out, as the guardianship case did, for an independent special administrator."

H/T Wicked Local Provincetown

Write up by the Boston Globe