If there is no specific reference to real estate in a will, does “personal effects” typically include it? The only other reference is to “the rest of the estate.”
Depends on the law of the place where the will is made, but “personal effects” does not generally include real estate.
FWIW, the state is Pennsylvania.
Get a lawyer specializing in wills and estate planning. This is such a specific and tortured area of the law, you absolutely need an expert to assist you.
–Cliffy, Esq.
As someone going through an estate situation, I echo the call for an attorney.
Don’t make half-assed guesses at this. There is usually too much at stake and death tends to bring out bad feelings among people.
What BobT said is exactly right, but I’ll put in some half-assed California information, in that I understand that there is only “real and personal property”, and real property is land and buildings, while personal property is everything else, from your underwear to your stocks and bonds.
Oh, and “personal effects” is probably the person’s clothing, jewelry, books, etc–different from “personal property” which is a bigger category and includes personal effects as a subset.
My family is arguing over the phrase “major repairs”.
It’s not fun.
First, I second all of the advice about getting an attorney.
As a point of general interest, my opinion is that land would not be personal effects.