Wills are not public record until deposited and private proceedings are not a matter of public record in most states. However, potential beneficiaries will be entitled to view a will that has been admitted to probate.
And that’s the basis of my question. My parent dies and I think I should be in the will. The executor says I’m not. Do I have a right as someone who presumably should be in the will as next-of-kin have the right to see the will as it goes through probate to verify I’m not in it?
In CA probates are public proceedings, so I think any schmo that wants to create an online account and pay some filing fees can order redacted copies. I think the redacting is for personal information like SS numbers and asset values, not basic stuff like names of beneficiaries. However that has nothing to do with you being next of kin.
IANAL but I don’t think being a blood relative buys you any special rights if you’re not a beneficiary. I believe an executor is always registered with and technically appointed by a court (unless some state has some oddball method like revelation via dowsing wand) and they have an awful lot of legal responsibility. If they breach that in any way, like telling someone they weren’t in a will when they actually were, they’re opening themselves up to a pretty nasty lawsuit. I mean the will is filed with the court - it WILL come out that they lied if anybody takes a half-second to check.
Okay, being not-a-lawyer bit me in the ass. Apparently a deliberately disinherited child may indeed request a copy of a will that specifically disinherits them (state by state yet again). At least according to these folks:
The exact laws may vary from state to state but generally, disinherited children have a legal right to receive a copy of their parent’s will or trust.
Must the executor provide that?
I would assume, but best check your state regs.
I suspect your coworker was either stupid or lazy - insurance companies don’t have any reason to limit beneficiaries to one, and I would guess making a single phone call could have resolved the issue. I sold life insurance for years via a broker (which meant I sold policies from different companies) - and sometimes the beneficiary section was limited to 2 or 3, but there was always a supplemental form if you wanted to name any number of bennies.
Just send her copies. She has a right to know what your dad decided to do and of course live with it.
I assume that she will attempt to make you and your siblings that inherited feel guilty about her being left out. That’s a beef she has with her dad, not you guys.
Oh, you assume correctly. She has asked us to each give her 1/3 of our inheritances, and told us if we didn’t we’d be guilty of perpetuating the abuse from our father.
She knows she was disinherited because she’s seen the trust page that specifically disinherits her. That would stop most people but it would be out of character for her to stop. She’s now contacted a lawyer.
Presumably any reputable lawyer will tell her that she is out of luck if that is, in fact, the case.
This kind of stuff varies a ridiculous amount by state.
I second the advice to just send her copies of the court documents. She’s likely going to get copies anyway, from you or otherwise. Court records, including probate, are normally public, and in some states the basics are even searchable online. Good luck; I know from recent personal experience how much of a PITA this stuff is.
Not so much the co-worker as likely the HR people, for the benefit life insurance forms.
There’s nothing preventing them from sharing the money with her, of course. I’m just assuming that they’re not a very close family.
So, disinherited so she got $0 and now she’s going to spend money and end up in the red.
Since she’s already contacted a lawyer, I’d just stop communicating with her and tell her you’ll communicate via the lawyer, if and when the lawyer contacts you.
Well she needs to understand that she’s not entitled to any of the inheritance. If it was so important to her, then she should have worked on appealing to her dad when he was alive. I assume that she didn’t do that because of her principles of not sucking up to him. Well as sad as that is, that’s price of being principled and she should be happy with that.
Tell her you’re willing to live with that guilt if it helps teach her a life lesson. The fact that dad didn’t leave her anything and none of you are willing should be instructive. Sadly, some people never learn.
IIRC, the ways to challenge a disinheritance are either “he forgot” or “undue influence”. If there was no evidence of dementia when the will was written, the first is out. Unless one person (or all) spent excessive time “poisoning his mind” in his final years, and there is some evidence of deliberate undue animosity being communicated non-stop, I suspect it will be harder to do the latter. (Especially if the antipathy was evident long before he died)
My brother was executor of my father’s estate. Unlike my mother, who had divided everything in equal parts to all five of her children, my dad had decided to divide his estate in different amounts to the five of us and some of his grandchildren. One of my brothers got a larger share of the estate than I did (because said brother had been having financial problems). So I was sent a copy of the will by my executor brother and was asked if I had any problem with them. I assured him that as far as I was concerned it was Dad’s money and he could do what he wanted with it.
In many states, there must be a reason given for a disinherited child or else it is presumed that the testator forgot to include the child (and they’ll get a n equal share of what the other kids get). For that reason, it’s common to leave a token sum like $1 to a “disinherited” child to make it clear that they have been considered.
I’d be annoyed, too, but isn’t it easier to just send her (or her lawyer) a copy of the will than to argue about it?
That’s how I’d handle this with anyone I’ve ever known, except her. Whatever I send her, it won’t be enough, or it’ll be done rudely, or too late, and she’d probably have a lawyer get the docs from probate court anyway. She’s the most difficult person I know.