Aftermath of death and a wacko story

In My Humble Opinion
1

Please note that I am NOT seeking legal advice!!!

A woman I know, I’ll call her J., who is known for getting her facts screwed up, recently discovered her son-in-law died unexpectedly. The daughter and son-in-law had been married for over 12 years and didn’t have any children, but were fairly well off financially. J. has been telling everyone that they need to get wills done because her daughter (the widow) is now going to experience legal problems with the property that wasn’t in her name. According to J., any property that the widow’s name wasn’t on (they had two cars which apparently were not in the widow’s name) will revert ownership to the deceased (her husband’s) father. I thought that if a person died, and he or she was married, that unless it was stated in a will, that everything went to the spouse.

Has anyone else heard of anything different, or does it sound like J. got her story screwed up (yet again)?

2

Maybe it depends on whether you live in a community property state. A google search on inheritance laws for your state might be helpful.

When my first husband died, our pickup was registered in his name only. I had no trouble getting the title switched to my name. (He had a will but no one asked to see it.)

If your friend is scaring everyone into getting wills done, that’s a good thing.

I’m curious about the “recently discovered” part of your post. She didn’t read about her son-in-law’s death in the paper, did she?