If there is no WILL left (supposedly) by a deceased person , how can you find out if any thing was left to you

Question

My adult children would like to know if their Grandmother (on their fathers side, Oct.2004) left any thing to them, money or her personal effects. It was stated she had no will. It went into Probate court 2004/2005 .The neighbor tat lived next door to their Grandmother took care of the Probate. I have been in an ugly divorce with my kid's father and they are not in communication with him currently ( he LIES about everything ) How can they find out , with out having to go thru their own father.? ( by the way , their father's name is now on the deed to the Grandmothers house, along with the widowed husband.)

Answer 1

It depends on the State you were living in. I can speak a little bit about California.

Number one, if there was no will, then the grandmother did not intend to leave anything to anyone.

Number two, in all states, if there is no will, the technical term is that the grandmother died "intestate." Each state has it's own default plan for who gets what when a person dies intestate. In California, which is a community property state, all community property goes to the surviving spouse. Community property is any property, houses, investments, cars, and other personal effects, which were purchased using community money, property that was declared community, or property that was so intermingled with community property that you can't separate the two. Community money is any money that was earned during the marriage.

Separate property is any money earned before the marriage, any property accrued before the marriage, and any money or property that was inherited. For instance, if you inherit money from your aunt Milly, even if you inherit it while you are married, it is your separate property and your husband has no say over it. The husband may have separate property and the wife may have separate property.

As I said above, when a spouse dies, all community property goes to the surviving spouse.

However, separate property is treated differently. In California, if there is a spouse, but no children and the decedent has no parents, all the separate property goes to the spouse. If there is a spouse and a parent, 1/2 goes to the spouse and 1/2 to the parent(s). If there is a spouse and a child, 1/2 to spouse and 1/2 to child. If there is more than one child, 1/3 to spouse and 2/3rds to children.

If there is no spouse, it goes equally to all the children. If there is no children, it goes equally to all the decendent's parents. If there are no parents, it goes equally to the children of the decendant's parents. If there is no issue (issue means children) of the decendant's parents, it goes to the decedent's grandparents or the decendant's grandparent's children. If there is none of that, it goes to the issue of Predeceased Spouse. If no issue of the predeceased spouse, it goes to the Next of Kin in Equal Degree (nearest ancestor breaks tie of degree), which means nearest relatives, so that if the decedent had two 1st cousins as the decedent's closest relatives, the two 1st cousins would split it, but 2nd cousins would get nothing. If no relatives can be found, it goes to the predeceased spouse’s parents or issue of parents. If there is none of that, it "escheats" to state (meaning the state gets the money and property). Again, that's for California and other states will have different methods. Also, not every state is a community property state, so you'll have to check. Really only Western states tend to be community property states, such as California and Texas. Community property is a Spanish concept, so former Mexican territories, like California and Texas, are Community Property states and other states aren't.

So what does this mean to you. Under that scheme, it sounds like the house may have been in your ex-husband's mother's name. It almost sounds like it was her separate property. If so, her husband would get 1/2 and your ex-husband would get half. That explains why your ex-husband's name is now on the deed to the house. Most likely, if there was no will, your kids would get nothing. Under California's intestate scheme, grandkids get nothing unless the decedent's children are dead.

How do you find out what occurred? Go to the court house and pull the case file. You would need the legal name of the decedent and the year that all this occurred. You should be able to find the file and have the court clerk pull it for you. You can then look at it at a table and find out the final disposition. I'm not familiar with privacy laws regarding probate, but there may be some, so don't be surprised. On the other hand, you kind of give up your privacy rights when you die.

But the bottom line is that I doubt your kids will get anything at all. This is a good example of why you should have a will or a trust.

Answer 2

All you have to do is go to the Court where the probate was filed and review the court file. On some states, it's on line, but not in every state. There is no charge to look at the file and it is a public record. Anyone has a right to see it.

Answer 3

i think that because you are no longer in a relationship with the father this does make it hard but usually the parents estate goes to the next of kin such as their children. once the father passes away then if he doesnt have a will it will be passed down to your children and any other children that he may have. I know that it sucks but thats just the way it works.

Answer 4

No, they don't seem to be a similar. A ghost is supposedly the flexibility of someone who's already deceased. A poltergeist is distinct. If someone interior of a relations is deeply afflicted or dealing with puzzling cases (for eg, an indignant youngster who is going by early life) a poltergeist might want to properly be formed by their psyche. The anger is channeled outwards;throwing products, hurting human beings. it truly is a mirrored image of someone who continues to be alive. someone who has difficulty coping at the same time with his/her thoughts.

Answer 5

Everything will be yours if she was not in dept and you were here only surviving relative! If not leave it alone hay you cant miss what you never had so be done with it and why seem materialistic and feed into such small stuff alright ! leave the selfish and the greedy to them and walk and be better and bigg alright !

Answer 6

i'm pretty sure that everything passes down through the father and he would dole out from there, unless decided other wise in court