Am I entitled to anything from my fathers estate?

[Phantasmx85]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

When I was about 8, my mother divorced my father because of his drinking. I guess all he would do was work, come home, drink, and sleep. I don't remember too much about the divorce. After the divorce, my sister and I visited my father a few times & then we stopped seeing him. My mother would try to make him see us, but it was to no avail. It was like me & my sister did not exist to him.

After that, growing up was even harder. We had less money because he did not pay his child. My mother had to work night shift for quite a while, so my grandparents raised my sister & me for a while.

All during this time I had never heard from my father. No birthday cards, nothing at all. One day, out of the blue, I get a call from him. He's pretty much feeling sorry & wants to make amends. He is making all kinds of excuses, but I wasn’t having it. I was not mean to him, but I said that I wasn't interested in seeing him at that point of my life. When I graduated high school, my mother suggested I call him & invite him to my commencements. I did & he declined by giving some lame excuse. That was the last time I had talked to him.

Im 30 years old now & I recently found out he had passed away in May of this year That night I did some digging & found not much of anything. The next morning, my stepdad was able to get ahold of my father’s 3rd wife in a convoluted way. She relayed this story:

My dad was paralyzed from the waist down because of an operation he had to remove an absess on his spine. I believe he sued the hospital and won a decent amount of money. He moved down to Florida because he said he wanted to be close to at least one of his kids before he died. He had a heart attack & 2 major strokes. It was his wishes that nobody be contacted.

Now here’s the kicker. He had a military funeral. I guess before he died, he had told his wife that he was in the military at one time. He said he was a captain in the marine’s Icon sniper 1st division. Nobody knew this, not his first wife or my mom. I don't know how you could hide something like this. Now I thought it was bs, but I guess he did have a military funeral, so I don’t know.

Now my question is, are me, my sister or my mother entitled to anything from his estate or do we have any legal ground to go after anything?

[VeronicaGia]

First, what does this have to do with alimony?

Secondly, if he had an "estate" you could file a claim against it. However, realize that if he had life insurance, 401K, bank accounts, etc., and they all had beneficiaries named, then they are not part of his estate. So, his estate could consist of his underwear, socks and a few ties.

[Phantasmx85]

Originally Posted by VeronicaGia

First, what does this have to do with alimony?

Secondly, if he had an "estate" you could file a claim against it. However, realize that if he had life insurance, 401K, bank accounts, etc., and they all had beneficiaries named, then they are not part of his estate. So, his estate could consist of his underwear, socks and a few ties.

Sorry, I thought this also covered child support.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by Phantasmx85

Sorry, I thought this also covered child support.

Yes, a debt that he owed due to child support would also be a debt against his estate.

However, anything with a named beneficiary, or that is jointly owned or held passes outside of the estate.

For example: If he and his current wife owned a home together, then the home most likely passed directly to his wife (not to his estate). If they had a joint bank account then any money in the account automatically became solely her property upon his death....same thing with many other assets. Only separate property, without a named beneficiary, would become part of his estate. Now, since he apparently married several times, he may have held property separately, so its certainly worth investigating so that your mother can claim the child support debt against his estate....and so that you might make a claim as an heir as well.

However, don't count on there actually being much of anything there.

[BelizeBreeze]

Originally Posted by now-hereman

You and your sister might contest a will (if there is one) and/or collect on his estate.

It appears that your father was a bad person (as attested to by you and your mother), but if you do end up with something from his estate, don't forget to stop by the grave and thank him.

Keep your opinions to yourself unless you KNOW the correct legal answer.

As for the question, is the poster 'ENTITLED' to anything from the estate, that depends entirely on IF there is a will, and the EXACT wording of such a will.

As to back child support, ONLY the mother would have a right to claim against the estate for such and ONLY if there are arrears that can be proven.

I would suggest contacting the probate court and determining if there has been probate opened. If so, then there will either be a will on file or the estate would have been probated intestate. In either case, that's the first step.

Without that information, there is no way for you to receive a valid answer to your question.

[Phantasmx85]

Originally Posted by BelizeBreeze

Keep your opinions to yourself unless you KNOW the correct legal answer.

As for the question, is the poster 'ENTITLED' to anything from the estate, that depends entirely on IF there is a will, and the EXACT wording of such a will.

As to back child support, ONLY the mother would have a right to claim against the estate for such and ONLY if there are arrears that can be proven.

I would suggest contacting the probate court and determining if there has been probate opened. If so, then there will either be a will on file or the estate would have been probated intestate. In either case, that's the first step.

Without that information, there is no way for you to receive a valid answer to your question.

Thank you very much for your help.

[VeronicaGia]

Originally Posted by Phantasmx85

Thank you very much for your help.

A link to MI probate law:

[url]http://www.legislature.mi.gov/mileg.asp?page=getObject&objName=mcl-Act-288-of-1939&highlight=probate[/url]