Georgia Probate Legal Questions

Assuming you are in Georgia and your home is based here, then yes, you can leave it to your son even though he is in Norway, and even if you still have an outstanding mortgage. However, the mortage will need to be paid off after you and your husband are deceased unless your son happens to already be listed as a borrower along with you two. If there are other assets that you leave to him, then he can use those assets to pay off the mortgage, or he can sell the house to a third party from the estate and use the sales proceeds to pay off the mortgage (assuming the mortgage balance isn't more than the house is worth), or he can get the house transferred to his name and get a new mortgage to pay off the existing mortgage. There are options. I generally would not recommend that he buy the house from you right now, because that generally just creates other complications. The best thing for you and your husband to do is ensure that you have appropriate estate planning documents in place (usually, at a minimum, that means a Will for each of you, a Power of Attorney for each of you, and an Advance Directive for Health Care for each of you). The estate planning process includes figuring out the best way for you to pass your assets to your son and any other beneficiaries you may want to include, along with addressing a number of other potential issues.... Read More

This is not the kind of forum that will allow anyone to help you with an appeal in an existing court matter. You also should NOT post any information about an existing case online; there are way too many risks in doing that. You need to find an attorney who focuses on estate and trust related litigation (Please note: I DO NOT do litigation of any sort), contact that attorney directly, as soon as possible, and meet with the attorney. Only through a consultation with the attorney even be able to know whether you have an appeal right, and how best to proceed with it if you do. Best wishes to you.... Read More

This isn't the kind of forum that allows anyone to actually provide legal assistance. I'll try to give you general advice that may be relevant. If the probate court in Thomas County is the correct court, and they don't have anything on file, then that may mean that the estate is not actually open yet. If there's no estate open, then there are two basic possibilities: 1. The grandmother's assets all passed under rights of survivorship or beneficiary designations, so that there are no assets in her probate estate and therefore no need to offer her Will for probate. 2. Your daughter's father is trying to do things with regard to his mother's estate without doing them correctly. There is no great way for your daughter to know whether assets actually became part of the grandmother's probate estate. One possibility is to check the real estate records for any county where her grandmother might have owned real estate, to see if any land appears to be titled in the grandmother's name. But that's not actually always going to show the correct interest, especially if the family had a habit of not doing things correctly and any land may still be in another deceased person's name. As for finding out whether there is a Will, any person in possession of a deceased person's Will is required by Georgia law to turn the original Will over to the appropriate probate court for "informational purposes" even if the Will is not going to be offered for probate. Your daughter can send her father a letter, preferably by certified mail or other method where she can track delivery, demanding that he turn the original Will over to the Probate Court and let her know what court the Will was sent to. If he doesn't, she can file with the probate court she believes to be the correct one to try to force him to produce the Will and offer it for probate. If she's really a beneficiary, she should have standing even though she is not an heir (she's likely not an heir because her father is still living, but she is a beneficiary if she really is named in the Will to receive something). If the father hasn't probated the Will, he isn't legally entitled to do anything with regard to the estate. Also, even if he were the Executor, he would be in violation of his fiduciary duty by trying to make your daughter's receipt of her bequest contingent on her getting assets from you; he's not allowed to impose restrictions on a bequest like that. The bad news: your daughter will need to hire an attorney that is experienced in estate and probate litigation if she wants to pursue this. That may well end up costing her most of, all of, or more than the bequest she's been told she will get. If she has a valid case and if there are assets in the probate estate, she might be able to get reimbursement for her attorney's fees and costs from the estate. She should consult an estate litigation attorney as soon as possible (I am not one, by the way). Best wishes to you and your daughter.... Read More

The answer to your question depends on a number of factors. If you go back to the attorney who wrote the Will, that attorney still has the original word processor file for your existing Will, if you don't want a huge number of changes, and the Will isn't too old, then it is likely going to be more cost effective to have the attorney make whatever updates and change are needed to the Will, and then have the newly revised Willl printed out for you to execute. Doing a whole new Will also is a general best practice because it avoids the possibility for confusion, where having a Will and then one (or sometimes more than one) codicil makes it much more difficult to understand and implement the Will. But, if you can't go back to the original attorney, and if the number of changes needed is VERY small (like 1 or 2, including any corrections or updates to your existing Will that may be needed to ensure that it will still work correctly), then a codicil might be cheaper than doing a whole new Will. But if the Will is very old, if you want a lot of changes, or if it's just really poorly done, then doing a whole new Will is likely both better and more cost effective.... Read More

You won't be able to have anyone interpret a Will in this forum. This forum is suited only for more general legal question, not specific cases. Specific cases generally require much more information and interaction than can be accomplished here. You need to contact an attorney and schedule an appointment to have them look at your grandmother's Will so the attorney can actually see what it says, and ask you questions about other information or documents that may be relevant. Find an experienced estate planning attorney who also works with probate matters and schedule an appointment. Best wishes to you.... Read More

The answer to your question depends on a lot of factors and is not something that can be answered in this kind of forum. It will depend on, at least in part, (1) who you are having prepare the documents, (2) exactly what the Will is to do, (3) whether there are any other documents being prepared (for example, you should have a Power of Attorney and an Advance Directive for Health Care, not just a Will and a living Will), and (3) whether we'll be working with one person (just you) or two (you and a spouse or partner). In order to get an idea of what a particular attorney or firm might charge, the best thing to do is get a consultation with that attorney or firm. If you don't want to go through the whole consulatation up front, call the office and ask how fees are determined. In general, the office should at least be able to tell you whether the firm provides fixed fees or charges all work on an hourly rate basis, what range of fees you might fall into (they'll likely have to get some basic information from you for this), and whether there is a consultation fee.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on your losses. It's not possible to give you a specific answer to your exact question, because there are too many possible variables that I don't know, and this is not an appropriate forum for providing specific legal advice. But I will try to give you general information that should help. When a person dies owning real estate in Georgia (I assume your parents lived in Georgia; if not, the answer may be wrong), there are two typical possibilities if the property was owned jointly with another person: One, the deceased person's interest transfers automatically to the surviving owner (this only happens if the property was held under a deed that contained language such as "as joint tenants" or "with rights of survivorship" in addition to both owners' names). Two, the deceased person's interest becomes part of his or her probate estate. In your parents' case, if they both owned the property, you need to figure out what happened when the first one of them died. That tells you whether you need to administer one or both of their estates in order to get title to the property. After you figure out what estate or estates own the property, the next step is to administer each estate properly. What that takes depends on whether there was a Will for the deceased person, who the heirs were, what debts may have been owed, etc. But if an estate owns an interest in the real estate, the estate has to be fully administered before the property can be transferred to an heir or beneficiary in accordance with either a Will or state intestacy law (where there is no Will). Administration means getting an Executor or Administrator appointed, having a Notice to Debtors and Creditors published, ensuring that all debts are paid, tax returns filed, and taxes paid, and then distributing any remaining estate assets in accordance with the Will or the intestacy law, whichever applies. At that time, if the property is part of what will be distributed, there needs to be an Executor's Deed or Administrator's Deed signed by the Executor or Administrator, transferring the property from the estate to the appropriate person, and recorded with the county Superior Court clerk. If you are the only child, it may be easier for you to deal with your parents' estates than if there were multiple heirs, but they still need to be dealt with. Please get a good probate attorney to help you figure out what is needed and carry that out.... Read More

You haven't provided nearly enough information for anyone to be able to tell you whether you'd have any entitlement to your husband's part of his mother's estate, and this isn't actually a forum designed to allow someone to answer that kind of question. There are just way too many facts that need to be known. If your husband is living, and his mother left him a share of her estate in her Will, then you likely don't have any rights with regard to that inheritance unless the Will specifically stated that you were being given an interest. If your husband died before his mother did, then whether or not he even gets a share under the Will, and who has any right to receive that share, are completely dependent on what the Will says. In general, it is uncommon for a child's spouse (i.e., you, in this case) to receive any interest in a deceased child's share of an estate. However, it does sometimes happen. The only way to tell is for someone to actually review your mother-in-law's Will and see what it says. If your husband died before his mother and she died without any Will, then you are not entitled to a share of her estate, because by state law only your husband's descendants (children, grandchildren, etc) would receive a share of his mother's probate estate in his place, not his spouse. Your best bet is to consult an experienced probate attorney who works in the state where your mother-in-law lived at the time of her death, show the attorney any documents you have, and provide the attorney with as many facts as the attorney needs to be able to fully understand the exact situation. Best wishes to you.... Read More

It is a difficult question to answer.  On the one hand, staying in the house keeps it fresh, allows for the maintenance of the house, protects the contents of the house and provides you with the ability to keep up on things.  On the other hand, you are living free when the estate could be renting the property or offering it for sale with the house being properly staged for quick sale.  As executor, it is your job to handle the estate as quickly as possible.  The beneficiaries can consent to you staying in the house until the sale occurs. You should seek the guidance of a probate lawyer in attempting to handle the estate to lessen the chances of any problems.... Read More

Have you contacted the attorney who prepared the trust to see if they have a copy? (I hope you didn't do it yourself and that you used an attorney.) If you really can't find either the original or any copy of your trust, your best bet may be to get a good estate planning attorney and have them prepare an amended and restated version of the revocable trust for you, instead of hoping that things will be okay even though the original trust document has been lost. The deeds simply state (assuming they are done correctly) that the Trustee of the revocable trust is the owner. That does not tell anyone what is supposed to happen with regard to the property under the trust, however. That's what the trust document itself does. Without that, no one knows what is supposed to happen, and it may create title problems with regard to the real estate. A Will that works with a revocable trust normally just pours the probate assets, if any, over to the trust for the trust to distribute, so it does not normally replace the trust document. Having an amended and restated trust done when you can't find the original one is not a perfect answer, but it may be the only reasonable answer. Best wishes to you.... Read More

Ms. Mumphery: Unfortunately, you may not have an easy road ahead of you, and I strongly suggest that you find an attorney who is skilled in working with heir property to help you work out the details and take any steps. One question that you don't address in your post is whether either or both of your parents actually held title to the property, or whether it was heir property for one of them. For purposes of giving you an example of what issues you are facing, I will assume that your parents did hold title to the property in their names. If not, then you are just adding additional layers of problems and potential owners. Another question is whether either parent's estate was actually administered (I assume no, based on your post, but could be wrong). A third question is whether either of your parents had a Will, and, if so, what the Will(s) said. Assuming that your parents did own the property in their names, and further assuming that it was held by them as joint tenants with rights of survivorship and not as tenants in common, your surviving parent would have become the sole owner at the first parent's death, automatically. However, at the surviving spouse's death, either his or her Will or intestacy law would have controlled the property. If there was a Will, it needs to be offered for probate and followed to transfer title to the property, if possible. If there was no Will, then that parent's creditors have potential claims, and the parent's heirs have claims. If the surviving parent had not remarried, then that parent's children would be the heirs, with children of a deceased child taking that child's share, and so on. Then, as each child or other person who received an interest in the property died, same questions apply: was there a Will; if so, it controls that person's interest in the property, and if not, that person's heirs (which could include his or her spouse, if any) receive interests in that person's share. Depending on your siblings' family situations and whether they had Wills that were probated, in other words, the property could have a large number of current owners, none of whom have particularly clear title. You may not be able to get all of the property into your name. To even try, you will need to figure out who currently holds interests in it (it would be very unusual if it were really only you, although it is possible), and to figure out that likely requires tracing chain of ownership through a number of estates. When you figure out the owners, you need to try to either buy them out, get them to give you their interests, or file a suit to have the property partitioned so that you can get your share separated from everyone else's.  Georgia Appleseed may be able to help; they have an heir property project. https://gaappleseed.org/ Best wishes to you.... Read More

If you are legally recognized as one of your father's children, then under Georgia law (assuming he had his principal residence in Georgia at the time of his death), you are one of his heirs. That means, if he had no Will, you are one of the people who will receive any assets that (1) became part of his probate estate at his death and (2) are left over after all debts, expenses, and taxes are paid in full. This assumes that he has no spouse (as you stated) and no children who are under 18. Children under 18 can make claims for year's support against his probate estate and may thereby come in front of at least some creditors and expenses, but they have to file the claim before they turn 18. Whether assets became part of his probate estate is another issue. If a beneficiary designation points assets to a specific person, that person receives those assets, and they do not become part of his probate estate. If he owned an asset in his own name, and there was no beneficiary designation on it, then that asset likely did become part of his probate estate. If he had an asset like the retirement benefit you mentioned, and failed to designate a beneficiary on that asset, then the next question is what does the contract that relates to the benefit provide as the default beneficiary? It could be his estate, it could be next of kin; you need to find out. In order for anyone to be able to answer your question as to what interests you and your sister may have with regard to your father's estate in detail, they will need to know a lot more information than can or should be provided here. Please consult an attorney where your father had his principal residence and let the attorney go over the situation with you and help you figure out what rights you may have.... Read More

A lot depends on how the Will was written and whether the Executor was relieved by the Will or during the probate process from any need to file an inventory or reports with the probate court. In many cases, a Will will waive the requirement for the Executor to file that information with the probate court, and will simply provide that the Executor has to provide an inventory and reports to the beneficiaries once a year during the estate administration. Without being able to see the Will and any related court papers, no one can tell what the Executor in your particular case should have provided already. Because you mentioned that you believe the Executor has not been handling things properly, I strongly recommend that you find an estate litigation attorney and have the attorney help you pursue your concerns. You may need to file for the removal of the Executor, or to have the Executor required to file inventory and report information with the probate court. But these are not good do-it-yourself projects.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your father. If your father was the only owner of the house at the time of his death (that's one thing you may need to check--he may have given it to your daughter if she was living there), then it should have become part of his probate estate, and the Executor of his estate should have the legal right to access it. However, the Will must have first been admitted to probate in order for the Executor to have any rights or powers. In addition, just because you are a beneficiary under the Will and one of your father's heirs does not give you rights to access the house or to stay there. Whoever is appointed as Executor of the Will needs to get it offered for probate as soon as possible, in order to be able to deal with the house. I strongly recommend that person get legal help from an experienced probate attorney.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on your loss.  Your sister's estate is generally responsible for paying her bills, not her family. However, there are several cautions that accompany that general statement: 1. If your sister owned real estate (you mentioned a mortgage, so it sounds like she at least owned a residence), then someone will ideally need to open the probate estate and get the property sold or otherwise dealt with, especially if she did not have a Will. That is because there is a potential that certain kinds of liability that could arise with regard to real estate can become the personal responsibility of her heirs if her estate is not administered and the property dealt with. 2. If your sister's probate estate has any assets, those must be used to pay her expenses and debts, but only in the appropriate order, and no beneficiary or heir can receive any assets until those have all been paid in full. If debts and expenses are not paid in the proper order, then the personal representative of the estate, as well as heirs or beneficiaries who received assets, can become personally responsible to an extent, and will have to repay the incorrect distributions or payments. Therefore, who ever decides to take on the role of executor (if there is a Will) or administrator (if there is not a Will) must be VERY careful and should ideally have an attorney help. 3. If your sister has either a surviving spouse and/or surviving children, any one or more of whom are under 18, the spouse and minor children may be able to step in front of many of the creditors (but not the secured debts, like the mortgage, or federal taxes). And, if someone decides to administer the estate, then ideally someone will pay the mortgage and bills needed to preserve estate assets while the estate is being opened. Please do consult with a good probate attorney for further help in figuring out what to do.... Read More

There is no way for anyone to answer that accurately. Most attorneys don't compare prices with each other, so they usually can only tell you what they charge, not what the average is. Also, not all attorneys provide the same level of service and documentation with any given estate planning matter, so price isn't the only important question. If you want to know what any given attorney might charge, it's much better for you to contact the attorney's office. Also, it's actually not possible for anyone to tell from this kind of forum what kind of estate planning documents are actually suitable for you, and whether a "simple" Will is actually appropriate for your situation. Please use the find a lawyer service, look up some estate planning attorneys, and call a few. Then have a consultation (or even several, if you like). That's really the only way for you to tell whether you will be happy and well-served working with the attorney you pick, and it will help make sure that you get an appropriate plan. Best wishes to you.... Read More

Your question is not at all clear. If your late wife had a Will that provided for her assets to pass to your children, and if you were appointed as the Executor but do not have time to carry out that job, then you should refuse to accept the nomination as Executor and allow the appointed successor to step in. That should take care of that problem. As for bank accounts: if you are not actually already serving as the Executor (meaning not only that the Will appoints you as Executor but also that you have offered the Will for probate and been issued Letters Testamentary by the probate cout), then you should NOT need to go to the banks in order for the Will to control your wife's accounts. The Executor of her estate would be able to control those accounts. However, if you are also listed as an owner on the accounts, and that's why you would need to be at the bank for the children to access her accounts, then your wife's Will likely does NOT control the accounts. The accounts likely belong to you now, if you and she held them jointly, not to your children, and they don't deserve any money from those accounts. Your wife's Will can only give her children interests in assets that become part of her probate estate. Assets only become part of someone's probate estate if either (1) she owns the asset in her own name, and there is no beneficiary designation, payable on death, or transfer on death designation on the asset, or (2) she owned the asset jointly with another person, but as "tenants in common" (often shown as "TIC"). TIC ownership is NOT the default form of ownership for bank or brokerage accounts, however, so if you and your wife held joint accounts they likely did not become part of her probate estate at all. You can confirm how the accounts were owned with the bank. Please do yourself and your children a big favor and consult with an experienced probate attorney. The children should also consult with attorneys, if they haven't done so. If your wife had a Will but no or very few assets became part of her probate estate, then there will be few or no assets that go to the children under your Will. If there are assets that became part of her probate estate, then there should be a way for the children to get access to those assets without you having to be involved, if you don't have the time to deal with it.... Read More

There is no requirement that one be discharged when finished administering an estate.  It is a very good idea though.  Check with the probate court to see if the administrator was discharged.  If not, he is still the administrator.  If he is administrator, you will need to have that person proceed with the estate.  If that person can’t or won’t, you will need to have him removed as administrator and ask the court to appoint you to handle the estate. If it has been so long that the estate is closed, you will need to file a motion to reopen estate explaining to the court why you need to reopen the estate. ... Read More

I can’t tell from your statement who died, and how that person dying impacts your mother in law.  Regardless, apparently the owner of the home died and the mother in law has been living there.  You need to contact the probate court in the county where the deceased person lived and see if an estate has been opened.  If so, you need to go to the court and get a copy of the will and see what your mother in law is supposed to get under the will.  If nothing, then she is probably out of luck. If something, then she needs to see a lawyer about what her inheritance rights are.... Read More

The answer to that question depends on a lot of factors, and your question does not provide enough information to give you an answer. In addition, this forum isn't really suited to answering questions about actual situations. As the first response stated, if you owned the house with your wife as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, then you may already own it. But if you don't own it as joint tenants (and to tell that, you have to look at the actual deed under which you and she held title), then you may need to take other steps. What those steps may be will depend on other factors, including, just by way of example, include whether or not she had a Will and whether or not she had children. You should really consult an attorney in person, with a copy of your deed in hand. It will be much easier for someone to help you with this question in person.... Read More

I am sorry for your loss. A 401(k) account does not become part of the original owner's probate estate unless the estate was the actual designated beneficiary, so if you are actually the designated beneficiary, then no, the 401(k) account will normally pass directly to you and not through your son's probate estate. You will need to contact the plan administrator to find out what documents you need to produce. Generally, however, you will need at least a certified copy of your son's death certificate and a completed beneficiary claim form. You get the certified copy of the death certificate from the state where your son died, and you get the claim form from the plan administrator for the 401(k). The plan administrator will also tell you if they require additional documents.  ... Read More