Heir dies before receiving inheritance

[xmatthews]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My sisters and I (among others) are heirs to a distant relative's estate.
He died without a will, and without a spouse or children. He lived in New Jersey but owned a House in Houston. The estate Lawyer is in Houston, but the probate is in New Jersey. This probate has been going on for 3 years.
One of my sister's (a Texas resident) passed away in February of this year. We were told by the lawyers that in order for my sister's share to be divided between the remaining sisters, we would have to set up an estate for her and that the allocation would go to "The Estate of my sister". If we don't do this, we are told her share would automatically go to the state of New Jersey. We were first told (by the probate lawyer) that all we needed to do was present the death certificate and that her portion would be allocated to the surviving sisters. Then we were told that was wrong. Could you please help us understand what needs to be done?

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My sisters and I (among others) are heirs to a distant relative's estate.
He died without a will, and without a spouse or children. He lived in New Jersey but owned a House in Houston. The estate Lawyer is in Houston, but the probate is in New Jersey. This probate has been going on for 3 years.
One of my sister's (a Texas resident) passed away in February of this year. We were told by the lawyers that in order for my sister's share to be divided between the remaining sisters, we would have to set up an estate for her and that the allocation would go to "The Estate of my sister". If we don't do this, we are told her share would automatically go to the state of New Jersey. We were first told (by the probate lawyer) that all we needed to do was present the death certificate and that her portion would be allocated to the surviving sisters. Then we were told that was wrong. Could you please help us understand what needs to be done?

Does your deceased sister have any heirs?

 

[xmatthews]

My sister died without a husband or children.

 

[xmatthews]

I forgot to mention that my sister basically lived in poverty. She was disabled and drew disability income.

 

[Dandy Don]

Exactly how is the sister related to this "distant" relative? When you said distant, did you mean distance by geographical location or distant by family relationship?

 

[xmatthews]

This gentleman was my grandfather's grandson, I guess that's not so distant ... but we did not know him.

 

[Dandy Don]

I'm too confused to figure this out--please explain exactly how your sister is related to this grandson--is she a second cousin, niece, what?

 

[xmatthews]

Sorry ... yes she is a paternal second cousin. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Dandy Don]

You should be asking the New Jersey estate attorney for more specific clarification about what happens next.

I suspect that they made an error when they told you that the amount would be divided up amongst the remaining sisters. New Jersey intestate law (meaning what happens without a will) goes specifies the phrase per stirpes, which means that if any sibling of the decedent is deceased, his/her share goes to that sibling's children.

Here is the order of succession of heirs when there is no will, no spouse and no children:
decedent's parents, or to the decedent's brothers and sisters equally or to their children per stirpes, or those don't apply, 1/2 to the maternal grandparents and 1/2 to the paternal grandparents or to their children per stirpes.

Sounds like you need a genealogist to figure out whether your sister qualifies as a legal heir. Since New Jersey estate attorney will be figuring out whether she's an heir, if she is an heir then someone will need to file to be her administrator in Texas to be able to cash the check here and distribute it to your sister's heirs.

Post your question on another free legal advice website (www.lawguru.com) if you can't afford to consult a New Jersey attorney about this matter.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[xmatthews]

Thanks for the information. It sounds like you are confirming that an estate would need to be set up for my sister in order to claim her part of the inheritance.

This is a really strange case. The estate is being probated in Texas, because he owned property in Houston, however there is also a lawyer in New Jersey because that is where he passed away and had some bank accounts.

A genealogical company has confirmed that we are heirs and we are listed as heirs in the probate documents. Can you tell me how much it usually costs to file to be an administrator. We are probably talking about less than $5,000 for my sister's share. We have been told by one of the attorney's that it might be cost prohibitive in this instance. Also, I understand that if we do this, then we will be responsible for any liabilities my sister migh have had.

Thanks again.

 

[xmatthews]

State of Probate: Texas

I have another question.

First of all I need to say that the deceased had no surviving spouse, siblings, parents or grandparents. The first survivors are 1st cousins. Along with several surviving cousins, there were several several deceased ... and their portion is being split between their children.

My question is ... I had an aunt that was a maternal 1st cousin to the deceased. She passed away last September, before the estate had been settled. She has two surviving children. Will the process be the same as with my sister?

I wasn't sure by your post if a natural child of an heir would need to have an administrator established as well ... or if the inheritance would naturally fall to them.

 

[Dandy Don]

Call the applicable county courthouse probate court in Texas or discuss this with a Texas attorney. It most certainly is not going to be $5,000, but since it is likely that the property is the only thing that is going to be probated, a lot may depend on the value of the property.