What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Iowa
This one is a bit complicated, please bear with me:
1.Non-custodial parent (my sister) died of ovarian cancer in June 2006 in Iowa. For preceding 2 years (after diagnosis & surgery for terminal condition), she was on disability and ex-spouse w/ custody of minor child in Minnesota received support payments from state of Iowa. Prior to her illness and following, spouse kept pressure on to get support payments through interstate CS recovery program. Though ex filed to collect support by trying to get her driver lic revoked and started contempt order, it looks like that was all dropped and resolved by modified support order and court hearing. No judgments for unpaid support on file in Iowa that I can see through online searches.
2. A paternal uncle preceded my sister in death by 6 months, but his estate was not distributed until over 1 year after her death. Cousin administrating Uncle's estate would like to distribute $10k to sister's two children (per intestate succession). My deceased sister's son is 23, in Iowa, near me; her daughter was the minor child for whom sister paid CS, but she ran away from Dad in 2005-06--is now 20. To make a long story short, daughter went down a bad path (pregnant w/ abusive partner, drugs, etc). She calls me or her brother occasionally, but won't say where she is or give contact info.
3. In order to close Uncle's estate (in WI), cousin would like to distribute the $10k. There are two ways to distribute my deceased sister's inheritance of $10k: 1) each child may claim half of the inheritance funds by presenting a small estate affidavit to my cousin (which is fine for son, but daughter can't be located, and that might create a complication); OR, 2) I would have to petition to administrate sister's estate in Iowa, which essentially amounts to opening probate—and potentially, a big can of worms. My concern is that opening probate would put the estate assets formally on record, and then the court would automatically connect the dots and require the bulk of it to be paid out to any unpaid CS order(s) that might be out there. My question, then, is this: how diligent are the courts in collaborating with the CS recovery units to collect unpaid support from estates of decedents? The order for support (which ultimately came from the state, due to my sister’s disabililty/terminal illness) terminated 3 weeks after her death. Would the clerk of court routinely search that record out and red flag it as a claim I would have to address in distributing the estate? Or would the ex need to formally file a claim against the estate? Bottom line, I don’t want to go to the work and hassle of opening probate for the sake of delivering a chunk of $ to a butthead ex (see note below). I just want the $ go to the children, who need and deserve it most.
NOTE: I understand and detest deadbeat parents, but in this case, the ex is really not due whatever arrearages might have accrued because he really took my sister to the cleaners over the years since the divorce (in 1996): tricked her into agreeing that he take physical custody of daughter, bilked her out her share of equity in home sold when they divorced, filed to have disproportionate CS amounts taken from her income while she worked. He was a batterer, and sister was so beaten down that she was not psychologically or intellectually able to challenge his manipulations through legal channels. By the time I discovered the extent of the damage & tried to intervene to help, the amount of legal fees needed to correct it all would have been astronomical.
Thanks in advance for any insights/ideas.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
This one is a bit complicated, please bear with me:
1.Non-custodial parent (my sister) died of ovarian cancer in June 2006 in Iowa. For preceding 2 years (after diagnosis & surgery for terminal condition), she was on disability and ex-spouse w/ custody of minor child in Minnesota received support payments from state of Iowa. Prior to her illness and following, spouse kept pressure on to get support payments through interstate CS recovery program. Though ex filed to collect support by trying to get her driver lic revoked and started contempt order, it looks like that was all dropped and resolved by modified support order and court hearing. No judgments for unpaid support on file in Iowa that I can see through online searches.
2. A paternal uncle preceded my sister in death by 6 months, but his estate was not distributed until over 1 year after her death. Cousin administrating Uncle's estate would like to distribute $10k to sister's two children (per intestate succession). My deceased sister's son is 23, in Iowa, near me; her daughter was the minor child for whom sister paid CS, but she ran away from Dad in 2005-06--is now 20. To make a long story short, daughter went down a bad path (pregnant w/ abusive partner, drugs, etc). She calls me or her brother occasionally, but won't say where she is or give contact info.
3. In order to close Uncle's estate (in WI), cousin would like to distribute the $10k. There are two ways to distribute my deceased sister's inheritance of $10k: 1) each child may claim half of the inheritance funds by presenting a small estate affidavit to my cousin (which is fine for son, but daughter can't be located, and that might create a complication); OR, 2) I would have to petition to administrate sister's estate in Iowa, which essentially amounts to opening probate—and potentially, a big can of worms. My concern is that opening probate would put the estate assets formally on record, and then the court would automatically connect the dots and require the bulk of it to be paid out to any unpaid CS order(s) that might be out there. My question, then, is this: how diligent are the courts in collaborating with the CS recovery units to collect unpaid support from estates of decedents? The order for support (which ultimately came from the state, due to my sister’s disabililty/terminal illness) terminated 3 weeks after her death. Would the clerk of court routinely search that record out and red flag it as a claim I would have to address in distributing the estate? Or would the ex need to formally file a claim against the estate? Bottom line, I don’t want to go to the work and hassle of opening probate for the sake of delivering a chunk of $ to a butthead ex (see note below). I just want the $ go to the children, who need and deserve it most.
NOTE: I understand and detest deadbeat parents, but in this case, the ex is really not due whatever arrearages might have accrued because he really took my sister to the cleaners over the years since the divorce (in 1996): tricked her into agreeing that he take physical custody of daughter, bilked her out her share of equity in home sold when they divorced, filed to have disproportionate CS amounts taken from her income while she worked. He was a batterer, and sister was so beaten down that she was not psychologically or intellectually able to challenge his manipulations through legal channels. By the time I discovered the extent of the damage & tried to intervene to help, the amount of legal fees needed to correct it all would have been astronomical.
Thanks in advance for any insights/ideas.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?