Georgia Probate Legal Questions

Hi- I am sorry, but your question does not describe a probate matter. Probate is the process of having a deceased person's Will validated and made effective. What your boyfriend has is a criminal law question. I don't do any criminal law and have no idea what the answer would be.   Please post your question again using Criminal Law as the topic so that the right attorneys will see it. And good luck to you and your boyfriend in getting the matter resolved.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your husband. If he had no Will, and if he was a Georgia resident, then you, along with his two children from his prior marriage, and along with any other children he might have had with you, are his heirs, and would receive any assets that became part of his probate estate after all of his debts, expenses, and taxes have been paid. If the heirs are just you and the 2 children from his prior marriage, each heir will receive 1/3 of the remaining assets. If there are more than 2 children, then you will get 1/3 as the surviving spouse and the children will split the other 2/3 equally between them. However, again assuming that your husband was a Georgia resident, you, as his surviving spouse, have the right to make a claim for a year's support from his probate estate. The year's support right comes in front of most unsecured debts and all other heirs. If none of his children are under 18, then you will be the only one who holds the year's support right. If one or more of the children are under 18, then each of those minor children will also have the right to seek a year's support. A year's support claim can be challenged, but only on the ground that the person seeking it is asking for too much and does not really need all of what he or she is requesting. If an interest in the deceased person's main residence is awarded as part of the year's support claim, then there is a 1-year property tax break that applies to that interest. As to your actual question about putting the house in your name: the first question is how it was owned. If you and your husband owned it jointly AND if the deed to the property says that you owned it as "joint tenants," "with rights of survivorship," or something else, it's already in your name- it transferred to you automatically at his death. You can file an affidavit of surviving joint tenant to clear up the deed record but you don't have to. However, if you and he owned it jointly, but NOT as joint tenants (meaning that the deed does not contain the right words), then his half is in his probate estate. And if he was the sole owner, then his entire interest is in his probate estate. If your husband's interest in the property is in his probate estate, then there are 2 basic options: (1) administer the estate. You may need to buy out his other heirs in an estate administration, if the estate is not large enough to allow his interest in the property to be allocated to your share of the estate. (2) File a Petition for Year's Support and ask that the court award you your husband's interest in the house, along with any other assets you want from his estate. Either way, you should ideally consult a probate attorney. The attorney will need to review more facts than can be posted here and help you figure out your options and what you need to do.... Read More

Until the will is offered for probate and accepted as the final will of the deceased person, no one has any rights regarding the house.  The widow can continue living there simply because no one else has the authority to do anything about it. Once there is an executor, he cna begin evictoin proceedings.  The widow has a right fo file for year' support and ask that the hosue be awarded to her.... Read More

You protect yourself by making sure yoru mother has good legal advice and that her documents insure that her wishes are carreid out.  If what you want is what you beleive your mother desires, then you need to make sure your mother sees a lawyer who can assure her that the current plans allow for an outcome as you want.... Read More

You are moving into an area of administration where you can seriously misstep. You need a probate attorney to guide you moving forward.    As for evicting your mother's husband,  it is possible.  You mention you inherited everything in your mother's will. Was the will created prior to her marriage? If so, it is likely he will inherit 1/2 of her estate as he might be an omitted heir.   Next, as surviving spouse, he has a right to file a petition for year's support.  He has 2 years from your mother's death to file the petition   If you are certain he does not inherit and will not be filing a petition for year's support,  you must notify him that he must vacate the house and you can then begin the eviction process by filing a dispossessory action against him.... Read More

In general, your child's right to an award for the wrongful death of another person belongs to your child. If your child is under 18 when she received the award, generally it would either have been placed in some kind of trust for her or someone would have been appointed as a conservator for her. Once she turns 18, if there was just a conservator appointed, she's entitled to the remaining funds and you can't prevent her from taking them. If the award was put into a trust and a trustee established, there may be provisions that allow the trustee to continue to control the property for a while after your child turns 18, but if the trust says she receives the property outright at a certain age, again, you can't prevent her from getting it. All you can do, in either of those cases, is to try and convince her to allow you or someone else to continue to control it, which she could address by either creating a trust for her own benefit that hands control to another person as trustee or by, at a minimum, giving you or someone else a power of attorney and then refraining from dipping into her own accounts. But you can't force her to do either of those things.... Read More

Unless you have a copy of the Will which you claim to have seen, you really don't have any guaranteed way to get access to it. You would not be one of your aunt's heirs if she has any living child or other descendant, and you say she has a daughter. This limits your ability to do anything with regard to the estate, because you do not have any interest whatsoever in it unless you can prove that you are a beneficiary under a valid Will. You can get a copy of the probate court's file for your aunt's estate, assuming your aunt had her principal residence in Georgia, because that is a public record. If a Will was filed, you would be able to see a copy of it that way. If you believe that the daughter is lying and has hidden or destroyed the Will that you read, and either no Will or a different Will was offered for probate, you will likely have to have at least a copy of the Will you were named in in order to get into court at all. Unfortunately, if you want to pursue this, your recourse is not with the police. You will need to get a good estate and trust litigator and have that person discuss the situation, review any evidence that you do have that the Will you describe actually ever existed (your word alone will not be enough), and let you know whether they think you have any chance of success and how to proceed if you want to do so.... Read More

Contesting a will is very difficult.  An attorney will need to see the Will before committing to taking such a case.  Additionally, the costs for challenging a will can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. There has to be sufficient assets in your father's estate to make taking the case a financial disaster for you and the attorney taking your case.  If there are not significant assets (more than $200,000 in my estimation) at stake, the case will be difficult to justify financially.  Simply pursuing the case because there are bad actors and you want to see your father’s true desires happen is not enough to cause a prudent attorney to take a case.   Wills are presumed valid and invalidating one is a very difficult case.  The evidence needed to overturn a will is difficult to obtain. Find an attorney who specializes in probate litigation to assist you.  The attorney’s location is not that important because you only need to be in court 2-3 times on the matter.  Good luck to you.... Read More

I really can't answer your question about whether or how you should put your husband's name on the deed to your property without knowing a lot more information about what you wish to accomplish and how you want ALL of your property (including both real estate and other assets) to pass to your loved ones at your death. I also would need to know more information about your husband and his family. It may be best for you NOT to add your husband to your deed. If you only want to ensure that he receives ownership of the property at your death, it may be better for you to change your estate planning documents and put a bequest of the property in them.   My suggestion is for you to meet with an estate planning attorney and get an estate planning consultation. That will help you decide what you'd really like to do and let you know the best way to do it.   Best wishes to you.... Read More

If there is a question about whether someone is competent to sign a Power of Attorney, the best way to answer the question is to have the person evaluated by a social worker, psychiatrist, or other provider who specializes in working with elderly persons. However, your brother will have to agree to any such evaluation. If you really believe that your brother is not competent, and if you also believe that your brother's wife is doing something she shouldn't be doing and that he is in danger physically or financially as a result of her actions, then you might be able to pursue a conservatorship. If you think that's possible, contact an attorney who works with contested guardianships and conservatorships, because your brother and his wife may well not take well to your trying to get a conservatorship over him.... Read More

To my knowledge, there is no source that would provide that information, although if you search the internet you might find one. Most of the ones that I know (I am NOT a litigator and don't do that work at all) ask for a minimum retainer of $10,000, although there are a few who I know of who may be able to work on a different basis. The retainer is what you put down in advance. The fees and costs could be only a few thousand dollars in a quickly-resolved case, but could end up in the tens or hundreds of thousands in a case that is complicated and that goes through multiple rounds of trial and appeal. The best way to start trying to figure out what a case you may have will cost is to call an estate litigator and get a consultation. That's the only way anyone will be able to give you a real idea of potential costs. Best wishes to you.... Read More

A Will normally deals with any assets that a deceased person owns, not just some of them. So, generally, whatever funds your father had from his settlement would be distributed in accordance with the Will along with any other assets he owned. However, depending on how the Will was written that might not be the case. The only way for you to be sure what to do is to have the Will reviewed by your probate attorney (if you don't have a probate attorney helping you already, get one now).... Read More

Unless you have actually had your mother's Will offered for probate yet, you aren't actually the Executor, so please make sure that you get the Will offered for probate before you do anything with her bank account, the car, or anything else. You do need to keep making payments on the car if you don't want it to be repossessed, but you will need to use your own account to make them, not your mother's account. Once you have had the Will admitted to probate and received your Letters Testamentary from the probate court (at which time you will actually be the Executor), you need to figure out what other assets your mother had and what creditors she had (including the lender on the car loan). You will need to close her bank account and move the money to an estate account that will have a new name (the estate's name) and a new taxpayer id number (which you will need to get for the estate once you've been appointed as Executor). You will need to notify any and all possible creditors of your mother's death. All valid debts will need to be paid in full or otherwise addressed before you can take over any property. You will need to discuss your situation with the lender on the car loan if the loan can't be paid in full right now. They may be willing to let you assume the existing loan and continue making payments on it. However, it will be up to them. You can't just keep paying under your mother's name and not notify them that she has passed away. Before you do anything, I would strongly urge you to get an experienced probate attorney to sit down and review the situation with you, including, but not limited to, the car's registration and other paperwork. If you are on the insurance and the registration, then you may also be on the title already. That may make a big difference as to what happens with the car and how much the lender will be willing to work with you. Best wishes to you, and please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother.... Read More

No one can tell you exactly what would happen to your father's estate if he dies with the Will you describe still in effect without seeing the Will, because a lot depends on what, if anything, the Will says happens if his mother does not survive him. If the Will provides for an alternative beneficiary or beneficiaries, then that's what will likely happen. If the Will really doesn't state what should happen to your father's estate if his mother, the primary beneficiary, does not survive him, then he may be deemed to have died without a valid Will in place, and then his estate would go to his hers, not to his siblilngs. You're right: your father needs to get his estate planning updated as soon as possible, to ensure that what happens at his death is what he WANTS to have happen. Your are wrong to tell him to write out his wishes and have them notarized as a stopgap measure: that would not have any legal effect. In the meantime, he needs to have the Will reviewed to see what it provides in case his mother does not survive him. If it provides for a distribution that he does not want to have happen, if you are really likely to be his only heir, and if he really wants you to receive all of his remaining estate at his death, then he may actually be better off revoking the existing Will until he can get the new one in place. However, if the existing Will actually makes an alternative provision that he's happy with, he can likely leave it in effect until he's gotten the new one prepared.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your grandmother.   If your grandmother left a Will, and if the Will has been offered for probate, or if she had no Will and a Petition for Letters of Administration has been filed, or if just a Petition for Year's Support has been filed, then you can get a copy of whatever has been filed from the probate court of the county in which she had her principal residence (please note: I'm assuming she lived in Georgia- if not, this answer won't be correct). You can call the clerk with your grandmother's name and date of death and ask if there has been any probate court filings for her estate. If so, ask the court how to get a copy. You may need to either go in person with a check or send a letter along with a check for the amount of the fees; if so, the clerk can tell you how much it will cost, what you need to send, and where you need to send it.   If there has not been any probate court filings and you believe that your grandmother had a Will, you can file a petition to compel production of the Will. However, this option is litigation. You will need to hire an experienced estate litigation attorney to represent you.   In the meantime, if you are asked to sign any paperwork, have a probate attorney review it before you sign anything. Otherwise you may find out you have given up your rights, if you have any.   Finally, if you are told that your grandmother had no Will and that all assets were either jointly owned by her and your stepgrandfather or designated him or someone else as a beneficiary, and if you really believe that fraud or undue influence led to that result rather than it really being her intent, you'll also need to hire a good estate litigation attorney. That's an even harder battle, however. Be prepared to spend a lot of time and money.   Best wishes to you.... Read More

An executor is a person selected to administer an estate. An executor is selected by the person creating the will also known as the testator. The testator can select anyone over the age of 18 to be the executor. An executor can also be a beneficiary. As a matter of fact, the executor is usually a beneficiary as the testator usually selects a family member as executor and most of the time, the teststor leaves his assets to family members .... Read More

I'm sorry to say that there's no question in your post, so I can't be sure what you actually want to know. But I'll try to provide some general information that might fit. It is possible to do a joint Will in Georgia (one where more than one person signs the Will as his or her own Will and it provides for what happens at each person's death). However, they are not favored under Georgia law, and, unless the people who wrote it also signed a separate contract that bound each of them to abide by the Will and not change it in the future, a joint Will only becomes binding on the first person who passes away, at his or her death. The surviving person is completely free to make a different Will and change the estate plan. If your grandmother had a joint Will with your grandfather (I'm assuming she survived him), then most likely she was completely free to change it and do a new Will after his death. It's very rare to see a joint Will at all, much less one that is accompanied by a separate contract to make it binding on the survivor. The question is likely not whether the original Will should still be respected. From your post, it sounds like you are concerned that someone manipulated the surviving grandparent into benefitting her over other heirs, and that there was perhaps some other wrongdoing. Unfortunately, this kind of forum is not suited for providing actual advice regarding a particular case. If you believe that your grandparent was manipulated into signing a Will that she didn't really want to sign, or if you think that there was financial abuse by a Power of Attorney agent or anything similar, all you can really do is to hire your own attorney, provide the attorney with as much information about the situation and any documents as you can, and let the attorney help you figure out if you have any ability to complain. You should look for an attorney with experience in estate planning, elder law, or trust and estate (sometimes called fiduciary) litigation. Best wishes to you.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your boyfriend. Assuming that he lived in Georgia at the time of his death, however, if the two video messages he left were the only "Will" he had, then he died without a Will. That means his heirs are the ones who will receive any assets that remain in his probate estate after his debts, expenses, and taxes are paid. If he had no children and he was not legally married at the time of his death, and if his mother predeceased him, then his father would have been his only heir. It does sound like the father may have violated your rights as a tenant by changing locks and just telling you to get out. However, if you can or already have found another place to live and if you got your possessions back, it may be more cost and trouble than it's worth for you to pursue your tenant's rights now. And you have no rights as a potential beneficiary under any video; Georgia does not accept a recording as a Will under any circumstances. Best wishes to you.... Read More