add language to a will/changing after notarized

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

My FIL passed away two weeks ago ish.

The will has just been made availible to us, via a copy from his girlfriend/executor.

A couple of questions:

1) It is a generic "fill in the blank" will from Socrates Media. It is for people who are not married by have kids, so it has general language in it about everything being split equally between the kids. There is one part that allows the person to have "specific bequests" and my FIL give and bequethed his travel trailer to his girlfriend, and she has written in the will "free of all encumbrances, loan balance, if any, for the trailer to be paid out of my estate plus three years of rent on the trailer space".

Can that kind of stuff be added in legally? (To be clear, we suspect she re-wrote the will after his death, as every page but the last one is in her handwriting and the time frames for the buying of the trailer and such don't add up as to why he'd even add that phrasing in...)

The first page of the will says in what I assume is generic language about how the executor can pay for debts and stuff.

2) from how it was explained to me by the girlfriend when she handed me the copy, my FIL wrote out the will, took it in, had it notarized, and then my FIL took it home, realized his handwritting was too messy, had his GF re write in in nicer penmanship, and initialed each page and attached that to the last page with the notary seal on it. Is that ok to do?

3) This is more of an opinion question I guess...is it ever permissable to request the executor be changed? My FIL always made it clear to us what he was leaving us, and now as it stands, in the end, no one will recieve anything except for the girlfriend. As mentioned above, we suspect she changed the will to her benefit but is there any way to remedy that or at least have it looked at, given that she wrote herself in as executor?


Thanks for any info. This is really terrible.

a few comments :

1) that is not okay to do. a notary notarizes a document on a particular date. you cant make changes to that document and re-submit it as if those changes were notarized.

2) specific bequests are somewhat common, but they should be written by the creator of the will. i cant imagine a judge seriously ruling in favor of the girlfriend. it sounds like your fil may indeed have wanted the gf to have the trailer, but once there is her handwriting on it, any judge in his right mind has to have huge suspicions.

3) i think everything points to you winning the case. but it doesnt help to win if there arent any assets left. so the sooner the better, in terms of you doing something about it.

i am sure some of the lawyers on the site can be more specific.

She was never married to him, correct? She has no legal standing except perhaps as a beneficiary. How long was she his girlfriend?

What other assets are mentioned in the will besides the trailer?

How many people signed as witnesses of the will (there should have been at least 2 people)? Would the witnesses be able to testify as to what they remember about what the will said?

Was she silly enough to word the will so that the kids actually receive nothing?

You need to be talking the will to a probate attorney to have your concerns answered--there are probably enough mistakes/technicalities in it to be challenged or thrown out without contesting the will, but the beneficiaries need to find out if they have legal grounds to contest it and can they afford attorney fees to contest if necessary.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

they were never married, together about 15 years.

the will has standard language that gives everything else to my husband and his brother (my FILs sons).

There are two witnesses but they are people we've never heard of and don't know. So we'd have to track them down I guess.

As the will is written, the boys (my husband and his brother) would inherit a house with a mortgage and to break even and fullfill what she wrote in the will, we'd have to sell everything we inherited.

We've met with one attorney who's said to allow her to enter it into probate and then contest it once it's been entered, I'm a little concerned about that but then again I don't know anything about all this.

You haven't mentioned how SHE stands to benefit from the will. You need your own attorney to evaluate the will and how you should proceed. Does SHE have the will and has it been filed for probate yet? Do you have any idea of what his assets were before he died? You are being screwed--a house with a mortgage on it is not free and clear to be given in a will.

Alright

The only specific bequeath in the will is leaving her the travel trailer. She wrote in the will "free of all encumbrances and 3 years space rent", meaning it is a travel trailer that is currently on a spot on the coast. And it has about $20k owed on it.

That is the only specific bequeath. The rest of the will simply states in general language that my husband and his brother inherit everything else. There is no money or stocks or anything like that. What we inherit is the house (with a $90k note on it), and two trucks (which we are trying to figure out if they are paid off or not, we don't know yet).

What it boils down to is that if the estate has to pay for the trailer and three years rent on the space it's on, then in the end, my brother in law and my husband basically inherit nothing...they have to sell their portion in order to cover hers.

We pretty much know that my FIL would not have wanted that, and the date the will was written doesn't coincide with his having any sort of estate anyways (he inherited the house himself about a year ago, the will is dated 2 1/2 years ago).

We are fairly certain that she re wrote the will after he passed.

We HAVE gotten an attorney who has simply said "Let her probate the will and then contest it" and I was just looking for feedback as to if that sounded right to anyone else who may have gone through this. The will lists her as the executor, and then obviously say to pay for the trailer and space, and we'd like to have the entire thing invalidated and list my FILs best friend as the executor, since he stands to gain nothing from the will. I'm a little wary of the suggestion of letting her probate it and contesting it after the fact, but then again I've never been through this.

What you were told is correct. You need to check at the courthouse to see if she has probated the will, because there is a time limit that you can contest, generally before probate closes.

You or your attorney also need to find out at some point if she had a signed power of attorney from the man, giving her legal authority to handle his finances and whether she did so properly by providing an accounting statement for monies she got to prove she spent it on his care or whether she kept the money selfishly for herself which would be abuse of POA.

It might be to your advantage if she has not filed for YOU or your attorney to open up probate so that the judge can ask her to present the will for court and so that executor can order up his bank account records and order tax returns to see what assets the man had before girlfriend took control.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

There is no POA. He passed unexpectedly, so there would be no care for her to take care of. The will does state that the executor is authorized to take care of his bills, but we know she hasn't been and we froze the bank account until the will is probated.

So what exactly did he say he was leaving to you all? At the same time didn't he mention he wanted his girlfriend to have something? There seems to be No point in contesting a will if there is no gain for you in it.

mrslunar said:

There is no POA. He passed unexpectedly, so there would be no care for her to take care of. The will does state that the executor is authorized to take care of his bills, but we know she hasn't been and we froze the bank account until the will is probated.

Click to expand...

What exactly is stopping hubby from opening probate himself?