do we get anything?

[cynthiasison]

What is the name of your state? New York

My husband lived with his step mother and father for a few years. After his father passed, in his will he stated that the house would be left to his wife and then to his son. Now, a few years later, his step mother now is selling the house and refuses to give any money to him. Is he enititled to a portion of the estate?

 

[Dandy Don]

Was his father's will officially probated in probate court? If it was, then your husband's name should have been placed on the deed/title along with his stepmother's name if the executor did his job correctly.

If you are certain that your husband's name was added to the deed/title, then yes, he is probably entitled to a portion of the sale.

What is the sale price of the home?

He needs to be consulting with a probate attorney to find out how much, if any, of this money he is entitled to--let's hope that the spouse doesn't get an unreasonably exorbitant share of this.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[cynthiasison]

His father's will was not probabted. The stepmother is now having a difficult time retrieving money from a financial institute that my husbands father had invested. In addition, she is now claiming she cannot locate the will.
The house closed last week for appox. $350,000.
Thank you for your help!

 

[Dandy Don]

I sure hope your husband comes out a winner on this one--as soon as his attorney files to open up this estate for probate and files to be administrator, stepwifey will have to account for what she has done. And now the administrator will be able to claim the money from the financial institute for the estate.

I think she is lying about not knowing where the will is--it looks like she deliberately withheld it so that she would not have to pay out any money from the estate to any other possible beneficiaries. Too bad her plan is not working out. She will end up getting a portion of the estate, but not everything. You were so smart to post to this message board!!!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[cynthiasison]

Can he probabte the will when it cannot be located? And without the will, can his step mother still be able to retrieve the investments and keep everything to herself?
Thanks again for your help

 

[Dandy Don]

Since the will can not be located, the estate will now have to be divided according to intestate probate law (meaning rules put into place if a will has not been found). The monies from the sale of the house and the money from the financial institute now go into the estate to be divided as the court instructs.

Please let me correct what I said previously--it's difficult to make an exact determination on whether your husband will get a share of the money from the home sale or not, since one of the language provisions in the will may not be written correctly or may possibly be invalid or may be unable to be carried out: decedent had no right to say that the home could go to the wife and THEN TO THE SON, since the wife has the right to do with the home whatever she wants after she dies and it may not go to the son. However, the wife has made a fatal error here in not filing the will for probate--if she had done so, title would most likely have been changed to her name only and she then would have had the right to sell it and keep the money. Since she didn't do that, the money now goes into the estate, and as a surviving spouse she will be legally entitled to the first $50,000 of estate value and then any amount over that is split between her and the other heirs (your husband and any brothers or sisters he may have)!! Too bad she doesn't have legal advice--I would tell her to make every effort to suddenly come up with the will, but let's hope that that doesn't happen. She will have to turn most or all of the money over to probate to be divided according to law.

Since the financial insitute money apparently did not name a designated beneficiary, it must automatically go into the estate to be divided and the administrator can do the paperwork to claim this money and the company is not likely to release it to anyone but the administrator.

Your husband should be shopping for an attorney tomorrow to help get this all sorted out. What a lucky man he is that this situation is turning out in his favor!!!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])