My Aunt Is Holding My Inheritance Money Captive

Location: Florida

Bit of a doozy here. I’ll try and keep it short. My (23f) mom passed away four years ago in September 2021 from breast cancer. My mom had a $125,000 life insurance policy of which my grandmother was the beneficiary. My grandma split the money 5 ways: Kept $25,000 for herself, gave $25,000 to my moms sister who was helping to take of my mom at the time (FYI my grandmother and my aunt are not biologically related; my mom and her siblings were adopted as children and my mom and aunt reconnected later in life), and the rest of the money ($75,000) was supposed to be evenly split between my brothers and I. My grandmother was in her late seventies and was moving out of state back to her home city, so she gave the portion belonging to my brothers and I to my aunt for safekeeping since she didn’t feel like we were ready to have the money in our own possession just yet (we were 19, 17, and 15 at the time).

Immediately, my aunt started acting really weird about the money. She told my brothers and I that according to my mom’s will, we could only have access a 1/3rd of the money when we turned 25, 30, and 35 (The will my mom had was based on when she had a $1,000,000 life insurance policy and was never probated. There was also a clause that would could take money out for education, health, welfare, an maintenance that she ignored completely, even though the will is null and void so it shouldn’t matter anyway.) The only time she let up the reigns was when my car absolutely broke down and she gave me $4000, and then proceeded to tell me I know will not get my first allotment until i’m 30. Every time I would ask her to at least tell me where the money’s being held, she said it didn’t matter and that it was “safe.”

About a year ago, I talked to my grandmother about all of this. She said that she shouldn’t of trusted my aunt AT ALL with the money, but she was hurt and grieving at the time. Because she is the beneficiary, it’s technically her money to decide what to do with, so over the course of the last year, we both have been trying to ask her to transfer the money to me so I can put it into accounts for my brothers and I. She has repeatedly stonewalled me, ignoring my calls and texts, as well as my grandmother’s. I’ve even tried calling my cousin to get in contact with her, and have heard nothing since July of 2024.

I have talked to multiple lawyers and the police. All have lead me to dead ends, or options that I cannot afford (I am a first year graduate student and have very few resources). Im completely lost and worried that the money is just gone and has already been spent. Is there anything I can do?