Anyone out there know anything about Probate Court?

Question

My fiance's mother passed away last week from colin cancer, she didn't have a will & his step dad is telling him that he isn't intitled to ANY of his mother's esstate. My ? to all is... whats the low down on probate? We have a lawyer. But we want to know what are some things we need to know before all of this gets blown up in court. All we know about his mom is that she had...a car in her name, she owned half of the home, and half of her huspands truck. We know that she had Life Insuance, & a retirement plan. My fiance's step dad is also telling us that he is going to get rid of his mom's car. Is this legal? Can he do any of this without even putting anything into probate? Is there anyone out there that has been in this same situation that might have some advice? The reason I am asking about all of this is because my fiance' has already lost one parent (his father) 2 years ago... He was left out of everything because of his stupid step mom. Please Help!

I live in South Carolina

Answer 1

*ALL assets of the Estate are frozen until it clears Probate.
*Until an Executor is appointed nothing can be sold, if it is, the proceeds of the sale are part of the estate.
In most States, if there is no will, the assets are divided by statute among the blood relatives. (Your lawyer will know the local rules.)
Life Insurance goes direct to the Named Beneficiary and is not part of the Estate

Answer 2

When you ask a legal question, you need to tell us what state you are in. You will get better answers.

Anyway, if mom lived in a community property state such as California, her husband will probably get to keep everything that was held as community property, such as the home and truck. Many states do not require a full-blown probate case for that, just a brief "community property declaration" filed with the court and proof that those items were community property.

As for the insurance and retirement plan, these usually do not have to pass through any probate proceeding. Instead, mom would have designated a beneficiary by telling the insurance company and the retirement plan administrator, in writing, who to pay when she died. If that was the stepdad, end of story.

The car in her name alone may be tough for stepdad to sell, as he doesn't have title to it. But again, many states have shortcut probate proceedings for "small estates". Technically, he would have to have some probate court give him an order so he would have full title to both cars, and the house.

Now a question for you--if you have a lawyer, why isn't he/she telling you these things? That's you pay them for.