Wouldn’t a wrongful death settlement (as opposed to a settlement for pain and suffering) be payable to the heirs rather than to the estate?
You can’t probate the Will or get an executor appointed since there is no Will. But can you get an administrator of an intestate estate appointed if there are assets?
I think the time limit to probate a Will in some states is a bad idea. I had an estate where when the decedent died her family thought she had no assets. About 20 years later her grandnephew’s ex-wife was cleaning her basement and found a box with some bonds and stock certificates, a copy of a Will, and a letter from the lawyer saying he was keeping the original Will in his bank vault.
In another case, a couple owned a co-op apartment. Their other assets were joint so when the husband died they didn’t think they had to probate his Will. When the wife died many years later and her executors tried to sell the apartment they found out they it was owned as tenants in common. So they had to probate the husband’s Will.
New York requires an affidavit of delay but in both of these cases we had a good explanation.
You can’t probate the Will or get an executor appointed since there is no Will. But can you get an administrator of an intestate estate appointed if there are assets?
I think the time limit to probate a Will in some states is a bad idea. I had an estate where when the decedent died her family thought she had no assets. About 20 years later her grandnephew’s ex-wife was cleaning her basement and found a box with some bonds and stock certificates, a copy of a Will, and a letter from the lawyer saying he was keeping the original Will in his bank vault.
In another case, a couple owned a co-op apartment. Their other assets were joint so when the husband died they didn’t think they had to probate his Will. When the wife died many years later and her executors tried to sell the apartment they found out they it was owned as tenants in common. So they had to probate the husband’s Will.
New York requires an affidavit of delay but in both of these cases we had a good explanation.
Statistics: Posted by bsteiner — Mon Jul 15, 2024 6:19 am