Untangling a will from a trust to honor her mother's wishes

If it weren't for Alix, there are many aspects I probably wouldn't have been able to get through.

Genevieve Lobos

When Genevieve Lobos lost her mother last year, she was already navigating one of the hardest moments of her life. Her mother had battled cancer for a long time. Beyond her husband and kids, her mom was the most important person in her world. And now, on top of her grief, Genevieve found herself responsible for settling the estate: managing a will that hadn't been properly executed, sorting out accounts that weren't set up to match her mother's wishes, and handling legal details she'd never encountered before.

Her mother's estate came with a significant complication: the will hadn't been followed adequately because her accounts weren't set up with a trust as a beneficiary.

While Genevieve has always been described as organized and capable, estate settlement was a different kind of complexity: one that required legal knowledge, institutional know-how, and the capacity to follow through on dozens of details when she was already stretched thin.

That misalignment meant the distribution her mother had intended wasn't automatically honored. Genevieve needed someone who could navigate the legal nuance: not just file paperwork, but actually understand what had gone wrong and how to fix it.

Her mother's attorney wasn't that person. He was dismissive, difficult to work with, and focused on billing rather than outcomes. "My mom's attorney was not very helpful,” Genevieve said, "he is not out to help people; he's out to make money." She needed a team that would treat the process, and her mother's wishes, with the seriousness they deserved.

I got overwhelmed with how to handle certain things, so my Settlement Specialist suggested sending a box to scan all the documents. It made it easy.

Shrey also helped Genevieve understand something she hadn't realized going in: how the trust and the will interact, why accounts need to be set up correctly to reflect someone's wishes, and what she should do now, for her own estate plan, to make sure her family doesn't face the same complications.

When questions came up, Genevieve had someone she could reach by text, email, phone, or through the app.

There are things you don't think about: which bills I'm legally obliged to pay, ensuring social security isn't fraudulently used. Shrey took care of all of that.

THE RESULTS

Settled correctly, and smarter for it

Settling her mother's estate is something Genevieve takes seriously, not as an obligation, but as a final act of care. Having a team that matched her commitment to her mother made a meaningful difference. "You help me breathe through this process," Genevieve said.

She's already planning to have Alix written into her own will, so her family has that same support from the very beginning.