Quote:
Originally Posted by JoelJohnson
When my wife's mother died, her father remarried less than a year later to a woman that had no children. When she died her niece was the executor. My wife was in the will, but the niece never contacted us (even though we hadn't moved for several years). We only found out about it though one of the woman's sisters (that liked us). We found out about the lawyer and contacted him. We got about 10% of the "estate". That was AFTER the niece bought the house at "fair market value". Her car was also sold (not part of the estate), etc. Did we get screwed out of our "fair share", maybe, but we lived in FL and they lived in RI. Since my wife had no direct relationship with the woman, we felt we had no option but to accept the amount we got. The funny thing is that my wife's father said that he would "take care of her", but we never saw a will and the lawyer that her father used had died years earlier. I'm very sure the niece made out VERY WELL!
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VERY similar thing going on with Mrs. EDJ's father's estate now. When the mother of 5 died in 2016 at age 81, "Papa," aged 85 wasted little time romancing a non-English speaking illegal alien who was the age of his youngest daughter (50 at the time). Marries her a few years later in 2019. The new wife has a daughter or a niece - unsure which. She has claimed both. On some legal documents she has claimed no previous children. We suspect she claimed her as a daughter when she came over the border when she was really a niece. DACA'd now.
Fast forward to 2025. "Papa" dies in April in California at age 91. The new wife reluctantly shared the Trust and Will documents with the eldest sibling. Turns out the Will was initially set to offer the 5 adult children next to nothing, but was amended in 2023 to grant each of the 5 adult children $50,000 each. New wife signed off on the Will, Trust, and Amendment documents, and a lawyer was involved. Would be possible but difficult to claim she was unaware of what she was signing due to language barrier. It appears new wife gets to keep the family home. A little tiny 1100 sq ft house from the 1940's with a single car garage that was long ago converted into the home's living room. Originally purchased for peanuts and long ago paid off, now valued at damn near $900,000! What can I say, East L.A. is gentrifying. Of course there are those on here that swear a primary home is not an investment. Well, it's certainly an appreciating asset if you buy early enough in the right region.
Digressing...
We understand the new wife is legally obligated to fulfill the terms of the Will. Who knows. Papers arrived early June as they are legally supposed to (copy of the Trust and legal language regarding the time to contest). Still waiting on that 4 month contestation period to end to see if $50k actually arrives. Not holding my breath. We'll see.
As for me, my elderly mother is 95.5, also in California. My older brother is the executor. I am the backup executor even though there is a sister between us in age. My brother and I have a good relationship, I'm expecting the division of assets to go smoothly between the three of us. Fingers crossed more and more tightly as that eventuality grows ever more near. Wish me luck!