As I said in my original post, our situation was somewhat unique in that I’m an only child and nearly every penny (except the above-mentioned bank account) of my father’s assets passed directly to me (and no one else) and bypassed probate. Add to that the fact that my father only had ONE outstanding debt when he passed away (AMEX). Not having to open a probate gave us leverage over DCM that many beneficiaries don’t have. Also, we actually consulted an estate attorney (and informed DCM of this fact), which probably sends up a red flag on DCM’s part to not try to strong-arm us. So DCM treated us quite professionally, and everything seems to have been on the up-and-up (e.g., we have written documentation from DCM outlining the settlement). But given a different executor without much leverage, or trying to juggle multiple claims on the estate, or without proper legal counsel, who knows how they’d act.