QUESTION

If my father had an annulment am I entitled to any of his assets

Asked on Oct 04th, 2016 on Wills and Probate - Georgia
More details to this question:
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2 ANSWERS

Wills Attorney serving Alpharetta, GA
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Your question does not have enough information. If your father has passed on, your question is really whether you are entitled to any of his assets as a result of his death. You don't state where your father had his principal residence; in order to try to provide some information I will assume that he had his principal residence in Georgia. If your father had a Will, you are entitled to the chance to challenge the Will if you don't believe that it's valid. If the Will is successfully offered for probate, you would also have the right to receive whatever is left to you under the Will, after any debts, administration expenses, and taxes are paid from his probate estate assets and after any higher-priority bequests made in the Will are satisfied. If he chose not to leave you anything under the Will, you aren't entitled to any assets. If no Will, then as one of his children you likely are entitled to some assets from the assets remaining in his probate estate after debts, administration expenses, and taxes have all been paid in full, and after any year's support award. You mention an annulment: I assume your father was not legally married at his death. If so, then no spouse could make a year's support claim. However, if there are any children under 18, the minors could make year's support claims. A year's support claim allows a spouse or minor child to step in front of creditors and other heirs. If there is no spouse or living children who are under 18, the your father's children are each entitled to a share of the remaining probate estate. If any children predeceased your father but had their own children, then the deceased child's children would receive the deceased child's share. Your father's probate estate includes only assets that he owned at his death that are not subject to either a right of survivorship or a beneficiary designation. A right of survivorship applies to most joint bank or brokerage accounts and to certain jointly-held real estate parcels (in Georgia, the deed has to clearly indicate that a right of survivorship exists; but joint ownership of an account automatically establishes a right of survivorship unless the account documents actually state that the right of survivorship is not intended to apply). Beneficiary designations usually apply to life insurance, tax-deferred retirement savings accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.), and annuities; they can also apply to regular (non-tax-deferred) bank or brokerage accounts, if stated in the account paperwork. A right of survivorship onlys transfer assets to another individual owner; a beneficiary designation can pay assets to an individual, a trust, or the probate estate. Only the probate estate is subject to the Will or to the laws of intestacy that apply if there is no Will.         
Answered on Oct 05th, 2016 at 7:38 AM

This answer is being provided as general information and not as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this answer.

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Probate Litigation Attorney serving Lawrenceville, GA at Robert W. Hughes & Associates, P.C.
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I am not certian what an annulment has to do with whether you are entitled to any assets?  Did he die?  Is his estate opened?  I assume you are his child?  Was he married when he died?  Does he have other chidlren?  Did he have a will?  Until these questions are answered, I do nto knwo how to answer your main question.
Answered on Oct 05th, 2016 at 6:20 AM

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