State where FIL lived at time of death... Florida
My father-in-law passed away a couple of months ago. He and my mother-in-law were estranged but never divorced. They had four children. FIL had entered into a bigamous relationship with another woman. The woman knows it was a bigamous relationship but did not care. They both kept up the masquerade of being married. He has one child (now adult) from that relationship.
My husband checked around and no one seems to know of a will. So hubby filed (using an attorney) as the personal representative of the intestate estate. He expects to get the paperwork next week that will allow him to get started in doing this job.
Today my mother-in-law sent me an email saying that she was going through old papers and found a will dated in 1967. It’s the will the military had him do before he shipped out to Vietnam.
So now what? We expect the other woman to put up a huge fight. When he died she did not notify the rest of the family, had her name put on his death certificate has his surviving wife. So one of my husband’s chores will be to get the death certificate corrected (anyone know how we go about doing that?)
MIL thinks that introducing the will now will only complicate things… that intestate distribution is just fine with her. She also does not want to be executrix as she is very old and disabled…. Of sound mind but not wanting to do all the work. She’s glad to have her son do it.
Questions:
Might this 41 year old will still be valid? It’s signed by 3 people. From the signatures it looks like they are whatever military people were in JAG that day helping the service guys make out their wills. There is no way MIL and her children will ever be able to find the witnesses to help validate this will. She thinks that it’s too old.
Does MIL absolutely have to give this will to the court? The will was written when her children were minors. She is more comfortable with the intestate distribution now that her children are adults. Plus with the intestate distribution the daughter of the other woman will get her share too. MIL wants the young lady to get an inheritance.
Any thoughts/advice are appreciated.
My father-in-law passed away a couple of months ago. He and my mother-in-law were estranged but never divorced. They had four children. FIL had entered into a bigamous relationship with another woman. The woman knows it was a bigamous relationship but did not care. They both kept up the masquerade of being married. He has one child (now adult) from that relationship.
My husband checked around and no one seems to know of a will. So hubby filed (using an attorney) as the personal representative of the intestate estate. He expects to get the paperwork next week that will allow him to get started in doing this job.
Today my mother-in-law sent me an email saying that she was going through old papers and found a will dated in 1967. It’s the will the military had him do before he shipped out to Vietnam.
So now what? We expect the other woman to put up a huge fight. When he died she did not notify the rest of the family, had her name put on his death certificate has his surviving wife. So one of my husband’s chores will be to get the death certificate corrected (anyone know how we go about doing that?)
MIL thinks that introducing the will now will only complicate things… that intestate distribution is just fine with her. She also does not want to be executrix as she is very old and disabled…. Of sound mind but not wanting to do all the work. She’s glad to have her son do it.
Questions:
Might this 41 year old will still be valid? It’s signed by 3 people. From the signatures it looks like they are whatever military people were in JAG that day helping the service guys make out their wills. There is no way MIL and her children will ever be able to find the witnesses to help validate this will. She thinks that it’s too old.
Does MIL absolutely have to give this will to the court? The will was written when her children were minors. She is more comfortable with the intestate distribution now that her children are adults. Plus with the intestate distribution the daughter of the other woman will get her share too. MIL wants the young lady to get an inheritance.
Any thoughts/advice are appreciated.
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