Sis (herself an attorney, though not in Probate) has hired an attorney, and yes, selling to Crystal has been discussed.
I don’t need to know, but if your dad predeceases Uncle 1, wouldn’t Uncle 1 be able to sell it or leave it to his wife and kids?
Just yesterday heard from some older friends that the husband’s son from prior marriage recently expressed an interest in contacting the couple’s daughter. They have expressed a desire to NOT leave property to the kids from his first marriage. I hope they have taken steps to make that happen.
A person doesn’t have to list how much money she has to have a legally valid will. Not legal advice, just a statement of fact.
This is far from being a safe assumption. Either Dad or Uncle1 could sell their interests or bequeath them to just about anybody of their choosing. Just because you’re the last of the bloodline doesn’t guarantee you’re going to inherit anything at all. And this part:
makes me wonder who, in fact, owns the properties in question. When Grandma died, did she have a will? A trust? Probate? Or did family members all assume that Grandma’s kids became owners, share and share alike, with no regard to the actual transfer of title? It’s even possible that Aunt left her share (or even part of her share) of ownership to somebody else. She had no kids? Maybe she left it to a cat shelter. Crazy shit like that has been known to happen.
Understood, but MIL is a nervous and suspicious woman, and she thinks that if she files a will, it will somehow lead to Awkward Questions, which will then lead to her losing her benefits. Or something. I don’t get it, but whatever. I’m looking forward to a treasure hunt, as it were, once she’s gone.
Wills also do not typically need to be filed to be valid. Helps to be sure they can be found, but not required. An alternative I have seen put forward by some legal aid orgs is to slip it in a ziplock bag and keep it in the freezer.
But, again, fundamentally not the issue since a valid will doesn’t require a full accounting of monetary assets. A will can be as simple as “I leave everything to ____.” Or, “I leave my house to X, and everything else to Y.” Or “I leave all my possessions to X, including the money I have stashed in a jar under the kitchen sink.”
Hmm. My mother died a few weeks ago, preceded in death by her husband of 35 years (my stepdad) a few years earlier. My brother found their signed will – basically a scrap of notebook paper onto which they’d instructed that their assets be split evenly amongst their kids – in a safe. Another brother, who is executing the estate, had to take that before a judge and get it deemed valid (which the judge did). This was all in Illinois, FTR.
That’s not filing a will (eg: with the county, or other government body before death) that’s having the will probated (after the person has died). And since you clearly know that a will doesn’t need to be filed (before a person dies) to be valid, that should help you to explain to MIL why she is mistaken about the potential risks of a will?
Uncle 1 has no children.
As I understand it, in the unlikely event that my massively obese alcoholic uncle passes away before my college double varsity athlete dad, Dad’s shares would fall to me and my brother. I’m just not clear where Uncle 1’s wife fits in.
From what you’re describing, it sounds like the property is deeded in some sort of “tenants in common” fashion rather than “joint tenancy”. With tenants in common, each person on the deed owns their share and can do what they want with it. It’s like having stock in a company. The person can transfer their share to whoever they want. If they die, their share stays with their estate and will be disbursed to the heirs along with all the other estate assets. With joint tenancy, the ownership share of the decedent goes to the other deed holders. The share is not part of his estate and would not be transferred to the heirs. It would be good to check into how the property is actually deeded so you know for sure what would happen.
Uncle1 has a wife? Your story is getting more complicated. If you really want to get into this Gordian knot, you might want to hire an attorney. There might be a very complex mix of ownership types, each of which may have implications with respect to survivorship. For instance, IF Uncle1 actually did inherit a portion, generally that portion would be his sole and separate property irrespective of who else owns it with him. If he used community assets to maintain the property, say, from a joint bank account he shared with his wife, she might well have acquired an interest in the property because her assets would be considered to have invested in the property.