Intestate Death

[slagent]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? North Carolina
My father died without a will and left three potential heirs, my mother, my brother and I. We are all of legal age. He was still married, although separated (no legal separation) from my mother for about 10 years. She is currently living with another man and has been for several years. He had life insurance that listed her as a beneficiary and the house was listed in both their names. He also had a stock plan through his employment that currently contains about $69000. He has about $10000 dollars in the bank, owns a car valued at $14000 and has personal property/personal affects worth about $5000. My mother claims that she has gotten legal advice that EVERYTHING belongs to her. Does she get everything he owns, without regard to my brother and I, to do as she pleases with it?

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? North Carolina
My father died without a will and left three potential heirs, my mother, my brother and I. We are all of legal age. He was still married, although separated (no legal separation) from my mother for about 10 years. She is currently living with another man and has been for several years. He had life insurance that listed her as a beneficiary and the house was listed in both their names. He also had a stock plan through his employment that currently contains about $69000. He has about $10000 dollars in the bank, owns a car valued at $14000 and has personal property/personal affects worth about $5000. My mother claims that she has gotten legal advice that EVERYTHING belongs to her. Does she get everything he owns, without regard to my brother and I, to do as she pleases with it?

My response:

Yup. She gets the whole enchilada.

IAAL

 

[howamidoing]

My response:

Yup. She gets the whole enchilada.

IAAL

IAAL, Just for MY personal benefit, would you mind explaining why she would get everything. I thought in that state the spouse only got half. With the exception of T.O.D's ,P.O.D's and insurace etc. I'm not saying your worng so dont yell at me. I am just interested in knowing how it goes. Thanks for your reply.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

IAAL, Just for MY personal benefit, would you mind explaining why she would get everything. I thought in that state the spouse only got half. With the exception of T.O.D's ,P.O.D's and insurace etc. I'm not saying your worng so dont yell at me. I am just interested in knowing how it goes. Thanks for your reply.

My response:

Remember when our writer said - -

"He had life insurance that listed her as a beneficiary and the house was listed in both their names."

Those items are 100% hers.

Then, when you consider her half of the other assets, PLUS an equitable percentage of the other half that would have been her husband's, how much money do you think will be left for the two children? Not much, when you consider the cost of litigation to obtain their approximately 10 to 15% each of the remaining assets - - and that's assuming you're able to SELL off the remaining assets.

In other words, it's not economically feasible to fight over the remaining assets. Ergo, she gets the whole enchilada when all is said and done.

IAAL

 

[howamidoing]

My response:

Remember when our writer said - -

"He had life insurance that listed her as a beneficiary and the house was listed in both their names."

Those items are 100% hers.

Then, when you consider her half of the other assets, PLUS an equitable percentage of the other half that would have been her husband's, how much money do you think will be left for the two children? Not much, when you consider the cost of litigation to obtain their approximately 10 to 15% each of the remaining assets - - and that's assuming you're able to SELL off the remaining assets.

In other words, it's not economically feasible to fight over the remaining assets. Ergo, she gets the whole enchilada when all is said and done.

IAAL

OK I see. That makes perfect sense. Thanks for explaining it to me.

 

[Dandy Don]

Mother won't get everything, so whoever told her that was mistaken or perhaps mother was being deliberately misleading so that the children would give up on pursuing a claim to what they are entitled to.

slagent, you will need to do a little bit of investigating on your own. Your first step will be to check at the county courthouse probate court to see if mother or her attorney has filed to open up this estate for probate.

Second step will be for you to contact your father's place of employment (or whichever company is holding his stock plan money) to ask if your father had named someone as beneficiary of the $69,000. If he named a beneficiary, then the money is payable directly to the beneficiary and passes outside of probate. If there was no beneficiary named, then the money belongs to his estate and you will want to hire a probate attorney to get probate opened up so that the money can be distributed among his wife and children. If probate has already been opened up, then all you need to do is attend one or more court hearings to find out what is going on with this estate.

Your attorney will also need to look into the matter of whether a beneficiary was named or not on the $10,000 in bank account money, but the bank will usually release that information only to the administrator/executor.

North Carolina law (when there is no will) states that the spouse is entitled to the first $15,000 in value from the estate and if there is more than that, 1/3rd of any amount over the $15K goes to the spouse, and 2/3rds to the children. Problem here is that you don't know what the total value of the estate is or which assets go into the estate and which assets don't, so an attorney can help you figure it out and get your fair share.

Good luck to you--you were certainly smart to post to this message board to get your curiosity satisfied!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])