Yeah, that’s what they all say. Anyway. . . I noticed in today’s obits that two people with the same last name died. Turned out they were husband and wife and they died three days apart (don’t know if the deaths were related or coincidence).
So, for probate purposes. . .
Assuming that a) they both had wills, and b) that they left everything to each other, how might the probate process work? Would they have to be probated separately? I’m guessing that the final disposition of the combined estates would follow the local laws of intestate succession, if no other legatees had been named. Right?
Some wills specifically cover this situation stating what to do if the two spouses dies within x days of each other.
IANAL but what I was told making out our wills: In CT, at least, the first deceased’s will would be probated including any disposition to the spouse’s estate and then the second deceased’s will would be probated. I assume this would be true even intestate so if the wife died last it would be her de jure heirs who inherited, and vice versa.
Some places have a 120 hour rule; some have the rule “oldest died first” in simultaneous death. Some places lawyers will insert the “provided they survive me by X days” clause.
If there’s no question of who went first, and no special clauses then obviously it works as exected. Last one to go inherits from first.
Because of the possibility that in an auto accident, say, one person may survive on life support for Y days, this is why there is often a clause about “survives for X days after me”.
one of my friends remarried later in life, and was concerned about his kids and her kids and who gets the house. If he died first, she got the house. (and vice versa) whch means all his life savings from before the marriage (she had very little) which went to build the house, would go to her kids. However, if he put any sort of limit on the house (a) not likely to stand up in court, since house is common property and (b) what if she had to sell it to go into old folks home or whatever?
In the end, all they could do was add a non-binding letter to their respective wills saying that they agreed that whoever had the house last and died, they would split the money evenly between his and her kids. Of course, he could not stop her form either remarrying after (in which case golddigger new hubby gets it) or her kids as power of attorney disposing of it (other than ethical and legal trust issues). There’s a limit to what you can do when you are already dead…