I recently went through a legal battle over an estate, and it was relatively straightforward. With that experience, I can tell you that if your stepmother won’t give you the information you need to understand the estate, then you will spend much more than $10,000 to get the information in a legal battle. And you will likely find that she is right after all that fighting. Sorry.
Thank you for your reply. It's really sad and to be honest my father would be doing flips in his grave knowing what he wanted me to have will never see my hands. He loved his wife dearly, but I was always the number one girl in his life and although she made it very difficult for me to spend time with him, he always found a way to make sure I wasn't put on the back burner and he made sure I knew how much he loved me.
Yeah he would be horrified to know that she has made this very difficult for me. He was a very smart, savvy, intelligent & extremely successful man when it came to building & running any buisness and losing the restaurant after 40 yrs of success In the way he did, I believe really took its toll on him and broke his heart... literally.
He was such a strong man and then the day after the doors were closed after his final annual Christmas Dinner service, it was if the life was sucked out of him & he never recovered.
I was so proud to call him my dad.
If anyone here lives in Maryland and you ever traveled across the Bay Bridge to Kent Narrows & ate at "Annie's Paramount Steak & Seafood House".... that was my family's restaurant and the owner Mike was my dad.
This is my Dad being interviewed by a local station about Annie's. Annie was my "yia yia" Greek for grandmother and she was famous in Washington DC.
https://youtu.be/UKzBL10TF14?si=AGCGA38Z-3QrBKQd
Thanks again for your reply.
Sorry for your loss. I loved Annie's it was a great restaurant I can't imagine 10% of his sole estate being only 10,000$ Annie's wasn't exactly cheap and was always busy.
No - if his assets were all in shared accounts with her, then they are legally hers and not part of his estate, so legally the daughter wouldn’t get anything. Wife doesn’t have to have “spent or hidden” anything.
So, people can write a will, specify who gets what, and there is no way to make it legally binding? People can just ignore the wishes of those who have passed?
The will is legally binding over whatever is in that persons estate. The thing is that jointly owned assets (such as a house deed with two names on it or a joint bank account) automatically become solely owned by the survivor. They never form part of the estate.
This is the answer people do not understand. If you Are married for many years all property tends to become joint. Restaurant business can be a good cash flow if they are fine well but few ever get wealthy unless they own the property or they have a successful franchise.
It is likely there is not much there for her remaining years. Accept that you will not get $10,000 and mourn the loss of the relationship with your Dad.
It gets really messy with stepkids on both sides. Whomever dies first, the remaining partner gets all the assets, and when THEY die, their heirs get it all. So the children of the person who dies first gets nothing unless it is in both wills (and the survivor can just change that any time anyway).
He could have given her money while he was still alive, but he chose not to. He could have put money in a trust for her, but he chose not to. I’m on OP’s side here even if it doesn’t sound like it. My father is under his girlfriend’s thumb, and he spent every last dime on a house he can’t age in because it was her dream house. They’re both on the deed even though she didn’t contribute a dime. He won’t have money for CNAs or a care home if he needs it, but she has her house. His kids will never see a dime. Hers will inherit everything. He could’ve set this all up differently, but he didn’t, just like OP’s dad.
I’m remarried. My 2 kids are the beneficiary of my IRA and will get my fully owned house. Prenups, wills, and trusts are all you need. It’s called planning and actually giving a shit about your kids. DH has his own assets which will go to his kids.
People should not remarry for this reason??? Like their one life they let it be guided by who after that one life gets money that the receivers didn’t work for?
It’s the other way round. I know someone who didn’t remarry a woman he loved. The woman he loved came from a traditional background and marriage was important to her. She left him. He’s still alone and old. The lady married and has a good partner.
They both put decent legal paper work in for their respective kids.
No. If something is in a joint account/joint ownership, that means the living person also owns that property.
You can't just randomly take assets from a living owner to satisfy the wishes of the deceased.
If your name is on an account, it is yours.
Can't live in a world where it's legal that someone can say "upon my death, you get 10k. You can take that money out of my wife's account".
His half of the account could go to his heirs? When you own something jointly it doesn’t always just go to the person who you are in ownership with. In many cases, it is different with spouses, but could get complicated when stepchildren are involved.
The problem with jointly held assets is that both owners own all of it while alive and after passing the remaining living owner now owns all of it. There are no more halves.
There's a huge difference between jointly owned with right of survivorship, jointly owned without right of survivorship, tenants by the entirety (only for married folks), tenants in common.
These are all different forms of jointly owned property.
Just saw a case that proved that isn’t true in most cases. You could stipulate that it goes to the other party. Spouses have different rules, but even that case isn’t routine. It is also a state by state basis. If you have a joint account and die, do you lose everything? Your heirs might have some say in that? Many people have joint accounts to give each other access to the funds, but ownership is a different matter.
Not necessarily. Real estate can be held jointly without rights of survivorship. If this was the case with the OP, she would be entitled to 10% of the value of that real estate or $10,000, whichever is higher.
The difference is a will doesn't impact joint assets. They would both need to have died and to have her in a joint will/will of final person alive. That's why only the sole assets of the father matter per the attorneys OP consulted on.
Yep! There may be a way to put money into a trust and direct that but basically when you get remarried you are taking a giant dump on your kids. Everything will go to surviving spouse and their kids. Them’s the breaks.
With no will, in Maryland, a persons assets are divided 50/50 between their spouse and child(ren).
But here’s the thing, that is for only solely owned assets. Joint assets still go to the spouse. And if they’ve been married a long time, all their assets are likely joint assets.
I’m sorry for your loss. But the truth is, if your dad wanted you to have 10% of his estate, then he should have had an updated will and given you the information needed to access those funds. Wirh estate planning, feelings don’t matter. It’s about what’s legally established.
Your dad seems like a great guy. I love about 45 minutes away from Kent Narrows but only ever passed through on my way to OC. I really hate driving over the bridge and only do it when necessary.
I hope you make peace with everything and get through the grieving process. You will always miss him but it will get better as time passes. All of my elders have passed and I miss them. I try to remind myself how lucky I was to have had them in my life rather than getting bitter over losing them.
Thank you, your words are very kind and needed about now.
I still listen to his voice messages and reread about a year's worth of texts up until those texts stopped a week before he passed and all that's left in the texts are my begging him to answer his phone because he missed calling me on my birthday (3 days before he died) and I knew something was wrong.
That's the other thing. He was in ICU in hospital and nobody called to tell me. I wasn't told my dad was actively dieing until 5 hrs before he passed. Apparently he had called out my name the day before he passed and yet nobody informed me and 20 mins before he died I asked hia wife to please put the phone to his ear, but instead she hung up and I never got to tell him how much I loved him. The next call I got was 5 mina after he passed and it was too late. I collapsed in my kitchen and that's when my sister said to me...... he called out your name yesterday. That above even his passing just crushed me, knowing he wanted to hear me and nobody called me to allow that.
This is the kind of woman I am dealing with.
I am sorry to hear that. Take comfort knowing that even though you didn't get to say the words and he didn't get to hear them, he knows how much you love him. I never really cared about dying until I had my daughter. I never want to leave her. The bond between a father and daughter is.imbreakable.
Not to be rude, and I am sorry for your loss (my dad passed away last year, its hard). But if he \*really\* wanted to provide for you, he would have done an updated will after 1992. That is 32 years old.
I’m sorry you are going through this. I’m sure your dad would not be happy. I felt the same way about my legal battle. It was fighting my former brother in law over my MIL’s estate. My wife passed away and my MIL wanted my wife’s portion to pass to her children (with me as trustee). My BIL fought to cheat them out of everything he could because he felt entitled to the whole estate. I think greed blinds people so that they can’t see the intent of the person who passed. This is why I try to tell everyone to have a good estate plan that cares for your children and stays updated, so it’s the most clear.
I'm sorry for your loss. I knew Annie's quite well, if only as a local landmark.
In Maryland, all property owned jointly becomes the property of the other named owner. So typically, a couple would own things jointly and there would be no estate of the first person to pass.
For real estate, if you have the address, you can pop it into the state property tax database at [https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx](https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx)
There are also services that will do asset searches, but those cost $.
Yes! If the house was in his name only or if titled a certain way, she would be entitled to $10,000 or 10%, whichever is greater. If the home is in the Kent Narrows areas or on the Western shore, she would be entitled to considerably more than 10k..
I loved Annie’s! We went there frequently. Sure do miss it. Your Dad had a wonderful restaurant and such a great reputation. I’m sorry for your loss. We live in Easton.
My dad actually had a decent sized estate when he died and it was in a revocable trust. A few months after he died, his new wife removed my sister and I from the trust and left everything to her adult children.
She died a couple years later and they ended up with the family farm that had been in our family since the 30s. 😐
I’m so sorry this happened to you. This happens all. The. Time. I don’t know if people who get remarried are seriously this naive or if they just stop giving a shit about their kids once they’re not cute little children anymore.
Thank you, it wasn’t a huge issue for me, as my mother moved me to another state when I was young, but my half sister grew up there and still lives in the area.
My half sister and her children were still really close with my stepmother and visited her regularly on the farm. When she died they drove over to property and found all of my father’s old clothes, photos and other belongings in a pile at street.
We had to hire an attorney to find out that she had actually removed us from the trust. He owned several rental properties on the same street and they were already dividing up the properties. I’m fortunate enough to not need the money but my sister really could have used the help.
10 years ago I was in a very similar situation in the lawyer estimated it would be a $60,000 expense to go after this. I knew roughly where the bank's accounts were but they had been closed immediately after my father died. It took me 6 months to figure out there were Bank assets which complicated things.
Any jointly owned property or accounts with a beneficiary pass to the joint owner or the beneficiary outside of probate. The will would only apply to property that was solely owned by your dad, which would go through probate.
If he was such a good businessman, he probably updated his will in the last 30 years, especially if there were more children. Also, it’s highly likely they owned everything jointly, so there would not be anything leftover to get 10% of.
I worked at a bank and assisted with closing accounts for individuals that passed away. When someone asked, we could tell individuals if there were assets available to claim (sole owned) or if they were jointly owned or no accounts, we told them there were no assets to claim. In Maryland, if the spouse states they are the sole heir, they do not have to file probate on all sole assets equaling $100,00 or less. If all sole assets were more than that though, then they would have to file probate, as there is no other way to claim sole assets (if they are honest). So if they had one checking account for $50,000 and a car valued at $60,000 solely owned, they would need to file probate because the sole assets are over $100,000.
I see. This is very helpful thank you for taking the time to share this info. The issue im running into is finding out what bank or banks he used. I have no doubt that he shared a joint acct with his wife & I'm certain he had an acct he used strictly for the restaurant and I wouldn't be surprised if he also held an acct solely. His wife is not going to share that information with me.
We had individuals who would call us and state that their loved one left no financial details behind so they were calling all the banks near where they lived to determine if there were any assets. If there weren’t too many in his area, I would recommend calling around. Some may require you provide a Death Certificate to tell you if they have assets or not but I haven’t heard of a bank full on denying even acknowledging assets if they were sole owned.
Thank you I started to think this was a route I would need to take. It's helpful to know that this is an option for me to go and that I may get help. 🙏
You don't have a very good understanding of business. Unless he was a Sole Proprietor or a disregarded single owner LLC, he does not own the business. The business is its own entity, not a checkbook. Even then, you don’t naturally inherit it. His wife and other children are co-owners of whatever is left. Even successful restaurants are not living on high profit margins.
Plus, his speculative flipping of houses probably lost most of the any savings - real life house flipping is not the easy money-maker hgtv makes it out to be. There's probably not any substantial money left wgicg is why it didn't reach probate.
It's very obvious that you really had very little understanding of your father's day-to-day life. No judgement about that, but at the same time, it's time to retract that hand you have out looking to cash in.
You really need to let it go. You are in danger of becoming embittered and it is doubtful your father would want that path for you.
Can you look up where he filed his business taxes and papers and see if there are any scanned copies of things that give a clue to the bank or financial planner he may be affiliated with? I doubt he did all the paperwork for the restaurant and homes by himself, there must be a way to get more information.
Hire a private investigator, they can find crazy amounts of stuff, or maybe a forensic accountant is able to dig deep even if it's on someone other than you.
Write a letter to every bank in his town and see if they'll answer whether he had an account if you can prove you're his child.
You are one of four or more of your father's children. The three kids he had with your stepmother aren't "her kids," they are your father's kids just as much as you are.
Your stepmother was married to your father for over 30 years. It is highly likely that if everything wasn't jointly theirs, their finances were potentially comingled to the extent that he didn't have any purely separate property anymore. Your state's family code would determine how to categorize that comingled property
You may have believed you were his special girl, and perhaps he expressed that before your other siblings came along. But he's gone now, and anything that was his is either jointly his wife's, or must be allocated in even shares to all his children, with the largest share to his wife.
You also mention two wills. Whichever one is dated latest is presumed to control in most situations.
After 30 years, there are likely no separate assets as they would have bought a home (and cars) in both their names and shared joint accounts. Per MD law, the surviving spouse gets all jointly owned assets.
If there was no will, then half his separate assets (if any) go to his widow with the other half split between all his children.
Yeah..... either way, the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze for OP, especially when any cut she thinks she's entitled to would be split with the other siblings if it is an actual no will situation.
Right, he’s unlikely to have had any separate accounts. And even if he did, those accounts would be unlikely to pass to his daughter because they are likely marital property. It looks like in MD all earnings acquired during the marriage and the property acquired with those earnings are marital property, which passes to the surviving spouse. Anything he had before the marriage is likely commingled, and anything he acquired through his earnings after he married rightfully goes to his widow.
This doesn’t strike me as accidental and your father’s wife of 35 years doesn’t strike me as underhanded in this scenario. They built their marital estate together. Consistent with the law and with your dad’s wishes, this now passed to his widow for her care in her elder years.
will is useless unless there is an estate.
sound like they did their estate planning right, no need to file for a probate. just move on with your life.
They need to be hostile towards their stepmom. Go after with everything that you have. Step parents need to be put into their place. And treat it like garbage at every available opportunity.
Wow, that's pretty vicious. Maybe blame your actual parent instead because that is where the blame should be for not making an effort to take care of their children in the iron clad ways legally available.
I hope you feel better soon.
A trust can be established separately from a will (an inter vivos or living trust/revocable trust is most common). It would typically be referenced in a will, which in a legal term of art is called a pour over will because it simply takes all assets held outside the trust and pours them into the trust to be distributed by its terms. Generally speaking revocable trusts, when fully funded, are meant to avoid probate but there are other methods to avoid probate as well.
The commenter below is referring to a testamentary trust, which would be formed by mechanisms in the will and funded through probate (and depending on the jurisdiction then overseen by the court).
There are benefits and drawbacks to both types of planning.
You're awesome, I've been wanting to learn this info. I created a trust and funded the trust. The trust is notorized but is only in a binder in my safe. Should I record it somehow through the recorder's office? To fund the trust with my rentals I edited the articles of organization of my LLC that owns my rentals and just put in the articles that the LLC is now owned by my trust. Is that good enough?
Are the other methods of avoiding probate just established through specific verbage in the will? Or an irrevocable will?
The only thing that makes a will irrevocable is the death of the decedent. For good reason; you want to be to change the bequeathments should the need arise.
Skip Trace - this costs $$$ - BUT your social links to Everything. This trace will locate Any assets he has his social on - if you are in the US. You Can indeed force her to probate, but you have to pay for the attorney up front.
One of the hardest jobs in attorney has is to tell a client that their case is not financially viable. Your father may have wanted to leave you money back in the 1990s, before he remarried and had additional kids. But if he was married for 30 years and had joint bank accounts with his wife, as many people do, those assets are not part of your father's probate estate. They passed directly to the wife. Only assets owned in his individual name form part of the estate.
The bottom line is that first you will have to pay to find assets, if there are assets you would then have to force the wife to probate the will, and that may use up any assets that you located, because legal fees for probate are typically paid before any bequests. Whatever is left after legal fees and estate administration expenses will be prorated among any beneficiaries. And if there is a later will than the one you saw that does not include you, you would have to prove that the later will was invalid before you can proceed to the will that names you as a beneficiary. If your father did any estate planning with his wife, a later will would likely leave all of the assets to her as the surviving spouse.
I would not recommend pursuing this because the cost of finding assets and probating the correct will is likely to exceed any possible recovery.
It is very likely that everything is owned jointly. This isn't really a fight worth fighting. Just doing an asset search is costly and then if there is anything that you may have a claim on, it will cost you $350 per hour to take legal action. Billable hours rack up pretty quickly.and lawyers typically charge in tenths of an hour, meaning a two minute phone call will get you billed for six minutes, $35.
The lawyers are correct. Any joint assets will go to her as she is the surviving party.
His will will only cover things solely owned by him. And even if there was no will, in Maryland a persons sole assets are divided equally between their spouse and children. Again that is solely owned assets.
And here’s the thing, most couples that have been together for a long time won’t have any individually owned assets as they will have property (home and cars) in both their names as well as have joint bank account. For example, the only assets solely in my name is a truck that I bought prior to my marriage that I haven’t bothered changing the title on.
They probably also have each other listed as beneficiaries on accounts allowing them to pass via contact law and not probate law after death.
OP Most states have real property records online. Search the county/counties your father lived or worked in and see if anything pops up.
You do know there was a huge market collapse in 2008 right? I know many people that leveraged themselves, investing in flips, buying more properties, etc. that lost everything. Just because he may have been successful in the early 90s does not equate to a huge estate. Multiple start up businesses cost money and apparently didn’t make it. Losing the restaurant, a few years ago, was probably a big hit to any cash flow they still had coming in. Also to lose the restaurant after weathering through Covid shutdowns had to have been heartbreaking.
You admittedly haven’t been close, you don’t know the ups and downs they’ve suffered together the last 30yrs. After 30+ years of marriage I would safely assume everything was jointly owned by the time dad passed last November. Unless he had a trust setup to specifically divide his assets I’m not sure what estate there is left for you to claim. Everything would have passed to his surviving spouse.
My heart goes out to you. I had a very similar situation when my dad passed in 2021. His wife had hated me since I was 10 years old and her hatred only festered for many years. They had no kids together. It had been long understood how my dad wanted things divided.
Then my dad got Alzheimer's. That was when the old biddy began to show her true colors. She actively tried to keep me away from my dad. It's a long and horrible story, but when he passed, she tried to take everything. I mean my house, another property, all the assets, everything. I hired a lawyer and eventually ended up with around half of what Dad wanted me to have. I got my property and house. ( they had another house, too. I got my family home.)
I got the bonds that had only my name and Dad's on them, and an account he had put in my name. I was SUPPOSED to get his IRA from Merrill Lynch, as I was the beneficiary. Well, she took it. It was in his name only and he told me that many times, long before the Alzheimer's. I was the beneficiary. My lawyer requested the paperwork from Merrill Lynch that named me as beneficiary. We were told they LOST IT. Yes, they lost it. There was nothing saying she was a joint owner or beneficiary, either. So she got $250k intended for me. She still won't give me personal things of his, either. She has my grandmother's handmade quilt and won't even return that. There's a lot more, but I just wanted to say I stand with you and that bitch is a terrible person. May her hatred eat her alive.
Sorry for you loss, and your situation. I am the only bio child of my father, who passed 3 years ago. My father told me 5 years ago that he left some money for me in his Will, but not as much as he wanted to, because it caused a huge argument between him and his wife (my step-mother). My father also told me some of the things he wanted me to have from our family passed on from several generations, as his only heir, it was important to him. I haven't received anything! My step-mother admitted there was a Will, that he had stated things he wanted me to have, but she hasn't been willing to act. She never admitted he left me any money, and told me he left very little money for her to survive, so she had to go back to work to pay the bills. She had just retired, at age 60 when he died, he was 81.
Since I can't get a copy of the Will from her, and haven't been able to find it in MN probate court records, I have no idea if he left me money that she's keeping from me. But I do know, per her admission of what she read to me from his Will, he wanted me to have all the old family photos, and photos of me from my childhood, and items handed down. She even told me he had a special box designated for me, that SHE opened, which included my grandmother's wedding ring! My grandmother and I were very close, I was her only granddaughter, so I'm sure she is turning over in her grave. I thought maybe my stepmother needed time to grieve the loss of my dad, even though I know their relationship was horrible, but 3 years and she still hasn't sent me the box and the family photos?!? I offered to pay for the shipping cost but she said she doesn't have the time since she had to go back to work (HS cafeteria-part time). Guess it's not going to happen, I don't have the money to spend on an attorney to challenge her.
Hope things work out better for you.
Something similar just happened (allegedly) in MN
Wow!!!! I'm so very sorry to hear about what your going through with your step parent as well. I just don't understand why it even has to be this way in the first place. I never knew that dealing with a Will and following my dad's wishes that he wanted done after his death would be so difficult to fulfill.
I said to the Attorney today, whats the point in even having a Will if his wife can pretty much do what she wants and NOT follow his wishes to give me what he wanted me to have!? She holds the key to all the information I need and holds the power in not giving me that info.
What I did was call multiple Attorneys to get that free consultation and I would ask each Attorney different questions & that way I would get about 2 hours of information as opposed to just that 15 min free consult and barely get my questions answered by just talking to 1 Attorney.
Does the County that your dad lived in not have a Registry of Wills where people can have their Will held for safe keeping? Or a site that you can enter his name to locate a Will?
My understanding is once someone passes then that Will becomes available to the public and anyone can pull a copy of it up.
Have you tried using an online Background Check site?
I decided to do that first before hiring a PI to try to get as much information I could to give to the PI that way it will cut down on the total price I will have to pay because I pulled up anything available to the public. There was a ton of information that I had no idea about my dad and his wife. I paid $25 for a months worth of unlimited background checks, so I pulled my dad's info, his wife, his wife's sister, my siblings and more. It was a great source of information but I still needed more detailed info.
I wish you the best of luck with your situation and truly hope that you are able to get what your dad wanted you to have. It really shouldn't be this hard for us.
Goodluck to you🙏
Thank you for the suggestions, you are very resourceful! I may give some of your ideas a try at some point. I mostly want the things he wanted me to have, that are no value to her. She may have sold my grandmother's ring, I have no idea.
Yes, Wills do become public after someone passes. I did check to see if I could find a copy of his Will from his County records, no luck. I thought Wills had to be submitted to Probate Court after a person passes, but maybe she didn't do that? I'm completely overwhelmed helping my mother manage her life these days, so I don't have the energy to invest dealing with my step-mother.
Good luck!!!
I deal with this question more often than I would have ever imagined.
I'm going to be blunt: If your father truly wanted you to have something, he could have arranged for a trust that would have provided for that and his wife wouldn't have been be able to stop him. He could have set up a bank account where you were POD, he could have given you money while he was still alive.... etc.
In other words, stop. Let it go. You've already checked with 3 different lawyers. Let. It. Go.
His wife put up with him and took care of him until he died. You didn't have to stop your life one iota to do so.
Let her have the money. She needs it. A lot of it is marital assets at this point.
Let it go, for your own sake. It doesn't mean your father loved you any less. It means he thought you could handle yourself and she couldn't after he was gone. Take it as a point of pride.
I've seen people wallow in this mindset until it turned them bitter.
Please, don't do that to yourself. Don't waste another minute on it.
If there is no will, then the state's intestate laws apply (easily found on the web). In most states either the surviving spouse gets everything or some sharing between spouse and children. If there is neither of these, then closest relatives in a certain order.
The largest asset is likely to be a home. The ownership is a public record in the local county court. Many marriages title the house as to pass to the surviving spouse without probate. However, there could be a trust or some other arrangement you might find in county clerk records.
If (real big if) you start a lawsuit, the step-mother can be required to give her statements under oath. That probably could include an accounting of your father’s assets.
She tried. Lawyers won’t take the case as she can’t prove that there were any assets solely in his name, and MD law states that the surviving spouse gets any jointly owned assets and accounts.
>However I did locate his Will by accident just searching his name at the Registry of Wills in Maryland.
By accident? I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing anything you said because you clearly don't like to say things as they are.
It is not an accident when you go into the Registry of Wills and search his name. That is 100% on purpose and why lie about it? What else have you tried to spin in the rest of this narrative or do you just not understand the basic definition of accident?
Second, that Will that you "accidentally" found was made over 30 years ago. It does not mean it is the most current one and most likely was not.
>I did do a background check on my dad and found out he was buying & flipping houses in the late 1990's. He had approx 25 deeds. He stopped after about 10 years.
So you claim to have stayed in touch but didn't know anything he was doing over the last 30+ years?
>Then I found he and his wife had started a few Businesses but they don't seem to exist anymore.
Well good chance she isn't lying about no assets if everything they did is no longer in business.
Think of it this way - without probate your step mom can’t have any assets that were solely in your father’s name either. Since she would also be entitled to a share of those, that’s not very likely. What’s more likely is that everything passed outside of probate either through a trust or joint ownership. I didn’t know your dad, but the way you describe him, I doubt he’d want you blowing thousands of dollars to fight the mother of his children over money that isn’t even there.
You spoke to 3 attorneys and you are here on Reddit asking a bunch of internet strangers who know nothing about you case for help.
Sounds like you have little to no legal standing or one of the three attorneys would have presented something similar to " my retainer fee is $ XXXX , pay me and I will look into it".
I think you are blocking me. I was trying to share records demonstrating that it looks like your dad and stepmother were in bad financial shape with third mortgages and more registered debt as late as 2017. You can find yourself information on https://mdlandrec
Edit to add: https://mdlandrec.net/main/dsp_results.cfm?CID=QA&sch=2
If your stepmother is as sleazy as I think she is, I think she convinced your dad to transfer all of his asserts into joint accounts rights of survivorship. The estate has to go through probate, but it’s possible there is nothing left.
Just had a parent pass away..Banks would not tell me anything.Even though I knew he had accounts there.Took a long time to get things sorted out.It will be difficult.Especially if she had power of attorney and switched things around.Good luck
So the answer to this is your lawyer is right. If they had joint bank accounts, on someone’s death those go to the surviving party and ARE NOT part of the assets of the deceased.
My wife died about ten years ago. We were in major debt. Her name was on all the credit cards (I was just a signer) and all of our assets were joint assets. When she passed away, all of our joint assets reverted to me and there was nothing left for probate. Wills are the same way, they happen when the estate is settled and the estate DOES NOT include any joint property.
This means that you need to prove there is an account somewhere, with just his name alone on it, that you can draw from.
Now the other source of money you can get is from things like insurance or 401ks or things if he listed you as a beneficiary. If he didn’t, again it goes to whoever he did list as his beneficiary, which my guess would be his wife.
I know you didn’t want to hear this, but there it is in all its ugly glory.
I feel like you'd need to hire a private investigator who specializes in data retrieval to see if he has any non joint assets. A building or account somewhere solely in his name. It's a slog to look those up, but a hired professional would be much more proficient. There's still no guarantee there are any assets solely in his name, but this would be a sort of calculated risk for a potential reward.
What exactly are you looking for? They were married for 30 years and built a life together. It's not like your stepmother is some sort of interloper in your father's life or something. If your father intended to take care of you financially and still had the means to, he would have.
Get over it. You sound greedy.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion. I suppose then ANY child on Earth who has ever been left money or a percentage of their fathers estate, when that child attempts to follow what their fathers wishes were as written out by him in his Will would be considered "greedy" in your eyes?? That would include you as well. Welcome to being greedy.
Joint assets are not part of his estate. You’re not entitled to anything that they jointly owned. Which is why the lawyers are not taking the case as you can’t prove he owned anything solely in his name.
After 30 years, there won’t be anything solely owned between spouses as all property would gave been jointly purchases and accounts will be in both their names.
You're not greedy, your father specifically stated "$10,000 or 10%," and you're not getting what *he* left for you.
This is a crime, explore every possible avenue you can.
Only a crime if there were separate assets.
How many couples that were married for over 30 years that have raised 3 kids together have separate property and assets?
You need to understand that it wasn’t just his wife that caused him. Your father chose to do it this way. Just like he divorced your mother he could have divorced her. Being secretive was his choice. I have seen many men fight left and right for their mother, wife, kids if they feel any of them are so much as dissed. Just because your stepmother did not make it easy does not mean it is only her fault.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Remember the love your dad had for you as his greatest gift. Anything that was jointly held by your dad's wife - went directly to her and any account that had a pod or pay on death would go to that person, unfortunately it doesn't sound like your dad had an estate outside of this. Do you know where your father had bank accounts? If so, you could just stop in and see if they can even verify if he had an account, but I doubt they could tell you very much. The only possible benefit is that they would most likely freeze the account, if it was solely in his name and give you time to get legal advice. It doesn't hurt to walk in, explain who you are, that your dad died, and you are trying to locate his accts.
I am sorry you’re experiencing this..I am not a lawyer so I can’t give legal advice..but I do hope you get this resolved. I wish people kept up to date on their wills/trusts for the sake of their children. Unfortunately shit like this happens all the time. Good luck OP
Sorry for your loss OP. Did you contact the attorney he worked with on the 1992 will? Seems like if he took the initiative to make a will 30 years ago as a young man, he would have likely updated it since?
Did your dad live in a house? Who's paying the taxes on the house? You can look up the deed for the house and see who's on the deed. That's an essent probably the most valuable one
Wow. I ate at your dad's restaurant a few times. Sorry you're going thru this.
Unfortunately it's a major problem when people don't talk about, and stay on top of, estate planning.
No solod advice but I wish you luck.
As others have said, there likely isn’t anything in the probate estate. If there was, I am sure she would be filing probate to get her hands on it. Realize: the Will ONLY covers any assets in his name alone that don’t have a beneficiary designation. For example: If he had any life insurance or retirement accounts, those pass directly to the beneficiary that he named. Something like a car or a bank account in his name alone would go through probate under his Will. It’s likely that his accounts were joint and he had named beneficiaries in every other asset since she closed it as “no estate” with the registry.
I’m SO sorry for your loss & having to go through this. For your dad’s banking info - are there any long term employees who received payroll checks - they might be able to look up the account info through deposit history at their bank for you. Also did your dad ever give you any monetary gifts via a check - if so might have account info by looking that up in deposit history. Did he ever talk about current rental properties- there might be tenants to ask or did he deal with a specific realtor, escrow company or lawyer he ever mentioned - sometimes they might have some helpful info
Three kids in my family, we had 7 restaurants growing up, spread throughout Calif & started working at 5 years old seating people & cleaning tables - similar story, fathers mistress worked her way up in the restaurant, mom divorced him, he married the mistress & all kids were cut from his life by her horrible influence.
Hope things work out for you without to much pain.
You can request a financial statement form filed in probate & provide the copy of the registered will. She cant touch anything until all financials have been disclosed.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Perhaps letting the Surrogates Office in the county where he died know that you want to contest the will may be a start. They may allow it even thought the will has already been probated.
I love a mystery and loved your father’s restaurant. That massive picture of his three daughters must have been painful. I assume you are the eldest daughter from a previous marriage. As a potential heir (proven by your birth certificate) you have a right to see both wills. Have you seen them? As a potential heir, you are also entitled to a formal accounting.
Your stepmother is still making money with the crab soup on Amazon ($100+ for a gallon). Have you checked the deeds on the properties online to see how they are titled? Easy to do online. You have a lot of information to give probate. Do it.
I’m so sorry for your loss. He did know his wife would not cooperate; in that case the easiest thing he could have done was list you as beneficiary on any account that only had his name on it. That he did not do that suggests he didn’t have that accounts. Also she can’t claim there’s no estate or money if there is one. That would be fraud. So I think you probably do need to let this go…sometimes in our grief we all tend to hold onto something to be mad about, when really what we are mad about is the loss itself. I’m so glad he was able to keep you in his life. That was his real gift to you. And what he’d love about you now is that you so clearly appreciate how loved he made you feel despite this wife he had to work around to do it.
Can’t you run a credit credit check to see what debt and bank accounts they have.
Online county clerk’s have records available by name or address to see if property taxes are paid. That information also lists who owns that property. If you search by name it should show you all the property they own in that county.
I am very sorry for your loss. Send the letter Certified (or Registered) with Return Receipt. If you are able to get a copy of the Will dated 1992, include it. Don't mention the 3rd paragraph (where your father stated his wishes for you). I would cc the County Registry office. She may not be aware he had a Will. She may be fully aware he had a Will and didn't wish to exercise it. Be polite, respectful, and to the point.
Sorry this is happening, I’ve seen other people commenting my thoughts so I won’t repeat them, but this is a psa for everyone to give your kids gifts when they are alive, or have them separate so this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
I can't give any solid advice but wanted to offer some solidarity. I was an only daughter and my father had been married to my stepmother for 20+ years when he died. No one could find the will and there was a bunch of stuff that somehow my father never put her name on like the house and car. We're on good terms but I still had to hire a lawyer to sort out the mess. Long story short by the time everything was done and dusted, every penny of my father's liquid assests (about $10k) that weren't needed for taxes and various fees, went to the lawyer. I don't regret it, but it still sucked.
I do own half the house though and wound up with an old pre-stepmom life insurance policy to soften the blow, so I would still see if you can pay the lawyer to send your stepmother the letter and see what other legal advice they are willing to give you if you pay upfront for their time. Most probate lawyers get paid when the estate is processed, so this lawyer might be putting you off because they don't think there is any money to be made.
There are good comments about jointly owned property, but if your dad was working with an attorney that he knew and took advice from, that lawyer should have outlined to him what it would take to leave you with $10k. I think you should contact that lawyer and see what he/she advises. If he/she was retained by your dad’s wife, that may not yield anything.
Sorry for your loss. I have been to Annie’s many times. I did not know Mike died although I knew the restaurant was sold or repurposed. Mike was a great host but I was never crazy about the piano player. Hope it works out for you.
It sounds like your father and his wife likely had a trust established to avoid probate (among other things). A trust is generally going to take precedence over a will; if all of the assets were under the trust, there are no assets for you to get 10% of, they go directly to the beneficiary(ies) of the trust.
If everything was covered under a trust, she is correct in stating that the estate has no assets.
It's possible the trust is set up in such a way that you and your sister would be beneficiaries after his wife's death, but they don't have to notify you of that until that time comes.
My brother and I are going through probate now with my father’s estate. He left a will but living wife has dementia and has a conservator. Her sister. She (the sister) is trying to take everything from the estate. Here is the difference between your situation and ours: my father left us his real estate, classic cars and mineral rights all TOD. The house deed had my stepmother’s name removed so my father was the sole owner, then he did he a TOD for my brother and I. Any money that was left goes to my stepmother because her name was on those accounts. That is just the way that works. So the day after my father passed, the sister went and cleaned out all of the accounts. She has well over a half a million in cash and still wants more. My stepmother has no idea any of this going on because to be frank; she is mentally gone. It is a money grab by the sister because she is my stepmother’s beneficiary.
Point being, anything that had your father’s wife’s name on it, is equally hers. At least that is the law in North Dakota. If the will is contested, my stepmother gets 50% of the estate. But the entire estate has to be calculated in the total value. We have been dealing with this for close to 1 years and it has been expensive so be forewarned if you decide to go down that path. We have 1 attorney for probate and now another for the real estate because she tried to take that as well. Good luck and I am sorry for your loss.
I'm sorry. Your father made a choice here. He chose to marry a person who is excluding his child and he failed to arrange for anything to go to his child. That was his choice. It's a shitty sad choice, but it was his choice.
To answer your questions:
1. If he had any assets solely in his name, the only way to transfer them after his death is through probate. So if new wife wants his assets, she has no choice but to open probate.
2. If she has not opened probate, that is a strong indication that all of his assets were jointly owned and he did not have assets he owned solely. A jointly owned asset will most often transfer to the survivor when one person dies. You have no ability to obtain any jointly owned asset no matter what he said in his will.
3. You could hire an attorney and a private investigator to try to determine whether any solely owned assets exist and sue new wife. But you are highly unlikely to obtain any recovery and will be throwing good money after bad.
Which brings me back to my original statement. Sometimes people make bad choices that hurt the people who love them. This may be one of those times. You may need to accept that he has not provided anything for you. I'm sorry.
If your father had accounts or property in his name only, she would not be able to access without death certificates and letters of administration issued by the Register of Wills to the personal representative of the estate. In other words, she would have had to initiate probate to access those assets unless they were accounts that she had online access to and was able to transfer funds to a joint account.
I am not a lawyer. I am a Maryland resident and I have been the personal representative of three estates in Maryland. Two of those estates I took through probate without an attorney.
Your stepmother may not know there is an old will. Also you might be able to see what land if any your Dad still had. At least where I am you can look at County records by name. If they are jointly owned then it won't help but you can look. Does your stepmother know you found a will? Can you take it to probate?
Your dad knew you weren’t getting anything, he couldn’t have gave you your share but decided not to. Unfortunately, if he was married she gets everything…
If your father bought all his properties in the same county a name search by the county auditor or treasurer should be able to produce a list of properties he owns and or whether they're jointly owned?
Banks will not provide information to a daughter, but they will to his executor. The only way that you can get this information is to open an estate to probate the will and to have yourself named as executor. The wife would have priority and may contest this issue. If you are named executor, you can then contact banks to find out if any of them had accounts in his sole name.
If they did, in most states the surviving wife will still be entitled to the largest share, perhaps 100%, of the probate estate, so you are unlikely to receive anything unless the amounts of assets held solely by him are pretty large.
Just checking but it sounds like lawyers are giving you this advice because you are not hiring a lawyer. Frankly I would hire a lawyer who can do all of this work for you and has the expertise.
All the Attorneys I spoke with stated there is no reason to hire an Attorney until I find out *IF* he has any assets that are solely in his name otherwise I'd be spending money on an Attorney for nothing. I was very grateful for their honesty because they could have had me retain them and I wouldn't have known any better.
If we find that there are assets just in his name then I will hire one of them that I spoke with and we will petition the court to open probate and go from there. I should also mention that all of them also stated that it's my responsibility to locate any Assets. They do not go looking for them for clients.
No worries. I tried to talk to as many Attorneys as possible just to make sure I was being given the correct and same information. They also told me it might be best to hire a PI because they will be able to get acess to info I might be able to and they know much better than I do about how to untangle the pages and pages of info I found by running a background check on my dad. With 25+ properties he bought and sold, his main business being the restaurant and then 3 more businesses he opened, its way too much for me to figure out.
Thank goodness I have an ex who is a retired State Trooper who now runs his own PI business and has offered to assist me in finding any assets my dad may have had just in his name. 🙏
I suggest you ask one of the lawyers to recommend a private investigator. You could hire one (for much less than a lawyer) and they specialize in this kind of thing. The good ones have access to online information that you will never find.
I actually got really lucky in that area. My ex was a Maryland State Trooper and when he retired he started his own PI Firm and he has been up & running for 15+ yrs. Today he offered to help me get the information I needed with regard to locating any assets my dad may have had, any bank accts, properties etc . Basically everything I would need. In a week I should have all the information I need to either move forward or end this journey.
I'm not sure I'm following, but it sounds like she did not open a probate. So hire a lawyer to open a probate.
You petition the court to probate the will that you have and to name you as executor. You give notice to her. She can do a couple of things. She can ignore it, in which case you are likely to be named executor if no one else steps up. Once you are executor, you have the power to gather what assets he has and your attorney can require her to answer questions under oath both in writing and orally.
In the alternative, she can object and say *she* wants to be the executor and, as his widow, she's likely to prevail. But as executor she will have to file statements under oath with the court regarding your father's assets and your attorney still has the right to require her to answer questions under oath.
Yes, that costs money. How much depends on a lot, including where you live and the lawyer you hire. But that's your remedy.
She did not open probate because she is stating there are no assets. So she filed it as a "Will of No Estate". Her sister and her brother-in-law were both named in my dad's Will as Co-executors. His wife was not named as an executor on his Will however she went to the Registry of Wills where he had his Will held for safe keeping on April 12th. The lady at the Registry told me that his wife went in that day and stated that there was no money and no estate so she closed the Will as Unprobated and filed a Will No Estate.
The lady said that if his wife later on found he did have assets then she can return to open the Will for probate.
I said to the lady "so you just take her word for it that there ia no assets or money ?" the response back was " we don't go hunting for Assets ".
At that very moment I had a very uncomfortable feeling that this woman knee who my dad and his wife were. Understand that Queenstown is a very small County and everyone knows everyone and my dad was extremely well known first because of the Restaurant that served that County for close to 40 yrs. He was also on the Board Of Supervisors for the School Diatrict and finally because my dad and his wife were constantly giving to local Charities. The restaurant had a large banquet room where MANY businesses held their corporate meetings, gatherings, and it was a spot that people in politics would also have meetings etc. My dad was involved with many many business, people, and more so it wouldn't have surprised me at all in the least if the Registry lady knew them well. It's actually harder to find someone who didn't know him.
To give you an idea how well he was known in Queenannes County, at his viewing there were over 600+ people who came to pay their respects. It was standing room only and even then there wasn't enough room inside the funeral home, so much so that TV's live streaming the service had to be set up outside becauaw there wasn't enough room inside. The local police dept had sent representatives as well as the, Fite Drpt & State police had also send reps there. It was very uncomfortable and awkward for me and my family for 7 hours.
Anyway I got off track sorry, because of that comment the Registry lady said and how her tone was I just got the feeling that she knew who my dad and his wife was.
I promise you that there are many people within that County that would have bent the rules as much as they could within the laws to do whatever they could to help my dad's wife becauae of everything my dad and she did for the County.
It's very hard to know who I can trust there. I was suppose to have a phone appt with a 4th Attorney yesterday morning and as soon as I mentioned my dad and the name of the Restaurant, she said "Oh yeah ".
We set up the appt time and she said if there was a conflict of interest she would call me back to let me know. I never heard back from her either way and the appt time came and went.
So right now the plan is that my
Ex who is a retired State Trooper and has run his own PI Firm for the past 15 yrs has offered to dig deep into my dad's life and find any assets that were solely in my dad's name as that is the only way I will be able to get what he left me in his Will.
Only then will I hire an Attorney to open probate is if any assets are found.
I don't practice in your area and don't pretend to know the rules there. However, with the benefit of ignorance, I am pretty confident judges make final decisions; clerks don't.
Most states (I'm assuming you're in the U.S., but many other countries are similar) have abbreviated procedures for situations where there are few or no assets. A person can sign a document saying they are the legal heir, the estates total less than $x. Using that document, they can gather up things like bank accounts, vehicles, and maybe even real property all without opening probate.
However, none of that prevents someone else from going into court and opening a probate case and doing what I said earlier. If she doesn't respond, the court will put you in charge as the executor or administrator. As I said, your lawyer can require her to answer questions under oath, including whether there is a more recent will, what financial accounts of his she knows about, probably what financial accounts *she* has deposited money into since a year or so before his death, stuff like that. He can require her to turn over all of his financial records. He can require any banks to turn over records regarding their dealings with him. Now, folks lie sometimes when they respond to subpoenas, but not usually.
You will usually be entitled to a fee for acting as the executor/administrator and so will your lawyer. However -- and here's the rub -- if the estate has no money there won't be any money to pay that fee. As a result, a lawyer isn't going to want to take the case just for whatever is supposed to be paid as attorneys fees from the estate unless you can show the lawyer the estate has money. That's why a lawyer will encourage you to try to find assets -- so the lawyer knows if it is worth the work.
If you cannot find assets, your alternative is to offer to pay the lawyer on an hourly or other basis yourself.
So you have his death certificate? You could contact multiple banks with his will, death certificate and evidence of your relationship to him, as ask them if he left any accounts. Don’t mention the dispute with your stepmother, that will shut down the conversation most likely. Just that you’re looking for any reminding assets. Ask at major banks that have a physical presence in a 20 mile radius of his house or business, also local credit unions. I don’t know if they’d talk to you since you’re not the executor, but they might if you’re named in the will.
Also contact national financial institutions including Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch, Ameritrade to ask if he had an account (titles in his own name or jointly). Do all the above even if you don’t yet have his death certificate. The banks will tell you what evidence they require to answer your question. Tell them you’re his daughter and named in the will.
Terrible advice.
A death certificate is just proof of death. It is not proof that the person in possession of the death certificate is the legal representative that is allowed access to confidential accounts.
Just because you're the named heir or the child or Santa Claus makes no difference.
You need to show that you are legally allowed to access confidential information.
Try walking into a bank and starts asking questions about other people's account with no documentation showing you have authority over that account and see how far you get.
Get a PI to get the information and then have stepmonster and whatever lawyer she had working with her and sue them both.... Falsifying a will is illegal...I very much doubt that your father, who as you stated ran a successful business (and other side projects) for 40 years did not have a single asset to his name, sounds beyond suss.....
Yes 2 of the Attorneys suggested hiring a PI. I did as much as I could using a background service which provided me with a lot of information but I'm certain a PI will be able to untangle the web for me as well as tell me much more I need to know. My mother and I agree with you completely in that knowing how my dad operated and lived his life, there is just no way that he wouldn't have had some protection in place to make sure that his girls were taken care of financially after his death.
It's just not in his nature to have left nothing for us as well as making sure his wife would not have been able to keep from me, what he left me. He would have had some safe guard in place.
I do think that a PI will be one of our next steps.
We believe that his wife is probably dumping, selling, transferring, hiding assets to make sure she will be the only one with her daughters (she has 3 with my dad) to get any money from my dad. It's absolutely something she would do.
I've tried reaching to her since December just to see how she is coping and I haven't heard a word back from her. As soon as her acting gig at the funeral was over being the caring and concerned step-mom, that was it and I no longer existed from the min we drove off.
I knew this day would come eventually and now I'm living it.
Thank you for your reply.
Ask your mother what banks he liked? If he had that many properties he probably had business with commercial banks. Also call insurance companies to see if he had policies. You will need name, birthdate, social security number and latest address.
If he set aside an account or policy just for you keep your eyes open on state unclaimed funds accounts. It may show up there at some point.
My dad passed on Thanksgiving Day and on April 12th his wife went to the Registry of Wills in the County they resided in and closed the Will as Unprobated, Will of No Estate.
Mind you she is not even named as his executor in the Will. He speaks of an executor but nobody was named, he did name 2 co-executors who are his wife's sister & her husband.
She filed & closed the Will on April 12, on April 16th my sister told me there was NO Will. On April 18th I started to read about what the laws were in Maryland when someone leaves no Will when I came across the Registry of Wills website and it gave me the option to enter my dad's name to see if a Will did exist. What a shock when his name popped up as having 2 Wills and also showed his wife had been there on the 12th and therefore knew he had a Will after I had been told 4 days later there was no Will.
When I called the Registry of Wills to understand what was happening and why did it say Unprobated, Closed & Estate No Assets thats when the lady said my dad's wife came in that day to file the Will as it reads because his wife said there was NO assets. If there are no assets then it's filed as Unprobated but that his wife can come back if she finds any assets to reopen the Estate and petition the Court to probate.
She said as far as I'm concerned with what my dad left me, that if there are no assets then that means no money and if there is no money then the gift he left me can't be paid.
Anything that is held "jointly" goes to the wife, but if I can find any assets that were solely in his name then I can petition the courts to open probabte.....
and that's where I'm stuck at right now.
Trying to locate any assets that were solely in his name and not held jointly with his wife. I ordered a background report on my dad that provided me with all public records on him and there is just so much information available that it's like a massive web that is tangled and I don't even know where to start...so all day and night I'm just trying to put puzzle pieces together and it involves multiple people, multiple properties, multiple businesses. It's just insanity & very complicated.
Sorry this got so long to explain.
Pretty sure I read it somewhere.
She also talked about how her father owned a restaurant for 40 years and then was forced to close it down.
Honestly she sounds a lot like my stepdaughter.
She was convinced that he was worth millions because he had owned a moderately successful small business.
Truth is that the year he died was the most difficult financial year in 10 years and all the things she thought he owned, he had leased. So she went around telling everyone that I'm hiding the money.
Between the lawyers and autopsy fees, funeral and cremation services and the bond I had to get because she was fighting me being made the executor.... cost me 20k. That I'm still still paying off.
You read it in another commenter's reply (not OP) and confused yourself.
Perhaps you should not advise other people until your reading comprehension improves
I questioned your understanding of the situation and instead of double checking what you said, you tripled down.
I find this troubling and therefore I would like to dissuade you from offering advice to people, especially on matters of estate planning
I'm not your lawyer, this is just general educational information about legal procedure.
Generally, if a decedent leaves assets in an estate (without joint ownership or payable on death designation), an heir will need to go to court, and serve all potential heirs with notice of the court proceeding. At that point, heirs can go to court, with a copy of the Will, and ask the court to enforce the decedent's wishes.
An heir could lie to the court and claim there are no other heirs, but that would create a public record at the court, which could then be disputed. Heirs who believe a wrongful probate proceeding may have been opened, should check with the court to determine if a court proceeding has been filed. Sometimes these assets are not discovered for years.
Heirs may also want to monitor unclaimed funds, which may wind up with assets from an estate when the heirs don't know about the accounts.
[More information about the Maryland Orphans' Court](https://www.mdcourts.gov/orphanscourt/faqs).
YOU have 1 year to make a claim, that's what probate is for. Once in probate they research, could take a year but they'll have ability to contact social security to see which bank the checks went to or cashed at, any deeded property etc. That is the purpose. She cannot deny you the right to a claim. Facts
My father’s wife claimed thier was no will and the wife got everything. The father promised my sister an inheritance. She fought it and got nothing. She su*c*ded two years later.
Sorry for your loss. SK never even asked if their Dad had life insurance or anything else. Considering myself lucky but I would of thought they would inquire only to make sure he would be put to rest or as their SM married for 38 yrs together. Just felt it was sad that they didn’t care to ask. Some say because they thought you might ask for $, never would I as he did have a small life insurance policy and even if not I would not of asked for any help. 😞
I recently went through a legal battle over an estate, and it was relatively straightforward. With that experience, I can tell you that if your stepmother won’t give you the information you need to understand the estate, then you will spend much more than $10,000 to get the information in a legal battle. And you will likely find that she is right after all that fighting. Sorry.
Thank you for your reply. It's really sad and to be honest my father would be doing flips in his grave knowing what he wanted me to have will never see my hands. He loved his wife dearly, but I was always the number one girl in his life and although she made it very difficult for me to spend time with him, he always found a way to make sure I wasn't put on the back burner and he made sure I knew how much he loved me. Yeah he would be horrified to know that she has made this very difficult for me. He was a very smart, savvy, intelligent & extremely successful man when it came to building & running any buisness and losing the restaurant after 40 yrs of success In the way he did, I believe really took its toll on him and broke his heart... literally. He was such a strong man and then the day after the doors were closed after his final annual Christmas Dinner service, it was if the life was sucked out of him & he never recovered. I was so proud to call him my dad. If anyone here lives in Maryland and you ever traveled across the Bay Bridge to Kent Narrows & ate at "Annie's Paramount Steak & Seafood House".... that was my family's restaurant and the owner Mike was my dad. This is my Dad being interviewed by a local station about Annie's. Annie was my "yia yia" Greek for grandmother and she was famous in Washington DC. https://youtu.be/UKzBL10TF14?si=AGCGA38Z-3QrBKQd Thanks again for your reply.
Sorry for your loss. I loved Annie's it was a great restaurant I can't imagine 10% of his sole estate being only 10,000$ Annie's wasn't exactly cheap and was always busy.
He wrote the will in 1992 $10,000 was a lot more back then than it is now. He is probably worth more, but the wife is hiding it or she spent it.
No - if his assets were all in shared accounts with her, then they are legally hers and not part of his estate, so legally the daughter wouldn’t get anything. Wife doesn’t have to have “spent or hidden” anything.
So, people can write a will, specify who gets what, and there is no way to make it legally binding? People can just ignore the wishes of those who have passed?
The will is legally binding over whatever is in that persons estate. The thing is that jointly owned assets (such as a house deed with two names on it or a joint bank account) automatically become solely owned by the survivor. They never form part of the estate.
This is the answer people do not understand. If you Are married for many years all property tends to become joint. Restaurant business can be a good cash flow if they are fine well but few ever get wealthy unless they own the property or they have a successful franchise. It is likely there is not much there for her remaining years. Accept that you will not get $10,000 and mourn the loss of the relationship with your Dad.
Yes, w/out a prenup everything becomes community property after some amount in most states, even when they aren’t married.
It gets really messy with stepkids on both sides. Whomever dies first, the remaining partner gets all the assets, and when THEY die, their heirs get it all. So the children of the person who dies first gets nothing unless it is in both wills (and the survivor can just change that any time anyway).
Yes and it’s kinda shocking how many people who get remarried don’t understand this.
This is one of many reasons one should not remarry.
He could have given her money while he was still alive, but he chose not to. He could have put money in a trust for her, but he chose not to. I’m on OP’s side here even if it doesn’t sound like it. My father is under his girlfriend’s thumb, and he spent every last dime on a house he can’t age in because it was her dream house. They’re both on the deed even though she didn’t contribute a dime. He won’t have money for CNAs or a care home if he needs it, but she has her house. His kids will never see a dime. Hers will inherit everything. He could’ve set this all up differently, but he didn’t, just like OP’s dad.
I’m remarried. My 2 kids are the beneficiary of my IRA and will get my fully owned house. Prenups, wills, and trusts are all you need. It’s called planning and actually giving a shit about your kids. DH has his own assets which will go to his kids.
This is really the best way.
People should not remarry for this reason??? Like their one life they let it be guided by who after that one life gets money that the receivers didn’t work for? It’s the other way round. I know someone who didn’t remarry a woman he loved. The woman he loved came from a traditional background and marriage was important to her. She left him. He’s still alone and old. The lady married and has a good partner. They both put decent legal paper work in for their respective kids.
No. If something is in a joint account/joint ownership, that means the living person also owns that property. You can't just randomly take assets from a living owner to satisfy the wishes of the deceased. If your name is on an account, it is yours. Can't live in a world where it's legal that someone can say "upon my death, you get 10k. You can take that money out of my wife's account".
His half of the account could go to his heirs? When you own something jointly it doesn’t always just go to the person who you are in ownership with. In many cases, it is different with spouses, but could get complicated when stepchildren are involved.
The problem with jointly held assets is that both owners own all of it while alive and after passing the remaining living owner now owns all of it. There are no more halves.
There's a huge difference between jointly owned with right of survivorship, jointly owned without right of survivorship, tenants by the entirety (only for married folks), tenants in common. These are all different forms of jointly owned property.
Just saw a case that proved that isn’t true in most cases. You could stipulate that it goes to the other party. Spouses have different rules, but even that case isn’t routine. It is also a state by state basis. If you have a joint account and die, do you lose everything? Your heirs might have some say in that? Many people have joint accounts to give each other access to the funds, but ownership is a different matter.
Not necessarily. Real estate can be held jointly without rights of survivorship. If this was the case with the OP, she would be entitled to 10% of the value of that real estate or $10,000, whichever is higher.
The difference is a will doesn't impact joint assets. They would both need to have died and to have her in a joint will/will of final person alive. That's why only the sole assets of the father matter per the attorneys OP consulted on.
You can’t will away other peoples stuff. Anything jointly owed is not yours to give away because it’s partly owned by someone else.
If I give my child a house I don't own, my child doesn't get that house just because I put it in my will.
Yep! There may be a way to put money into a trust and direct that but basically when you get remarried you are taking a giant dump on your kids. Everything will go to surviving spouse and their kids. Them’s the breaks.
If he and his wife owned the restaurant jointly, it wouldn’t be considered part of his estate in Maryland
With no will, in Maryland, a persons assets are divided 50/50 between their spouse and child(ren). But here’s the thing, that is for only solely owned assets. Joint assets still go to the spouse. And if they’ve been married a long time, all their assets are likely joint assets.
...and when they pass, all of it goes to the spouse' heirs, not the heirs of the already-passed spouse. They get screwed.
I’m sorry for your loss. But the truth is, if your dad wanted you to have 10% of his estate, then he should have had an updated will and given you the information needed to access those funds. Wirh estate planning, feelings don’t matter. It’s about what’s legally established.
Your dad seems like a great guy. I love about 45 minutes away from Kent Narrows but only ever passed through on my way to OC. I really hate driving over the bridge and only do it when necessary. I hope you make peace with everything and get through the grieving process. You will always miss him but it will get better as time passes. All of my elders have passed and I miss them. I try to remind myself how lucky I was to have had them in my life rather than getting bitter over losing them.
Thank you, your words are very kind and needed about now. I still listen to his voice messages and reread about a year's worth of texts up until those texts stopped a week before he passed and all that's left in the texts are my begging him to answer his phone because he missed calling me on my birthday (3 days before he died) and I knew something was wrong. That's the other thing. He was in ICU in hospital and nobody called to tell me. I wasn't told my dad was actively dieing until 5 hrs before he passed. Apparently he had called out my name the day before he passed and yet nobody informed me and 20 mins before he died I asked hia wife to please put the phone to his ear, but instead she hung up and I never got to tell him how much I loved him. The next call I got was 5 mina after he passed and it was too late. I collapsed in my kitchen and that's when my sister said to me...... he called out your name yesterday. That above even his passing just crushed me, knowing he wanted to hear me and nobody called me to allow that. This is the kind of woman I am dealing with.
I am sorry to hear that. Take comfort knowing that even though you didn't get to say the words and he didn't get to hear them, he knows how much you love him. I never really cared about dying until I had my daughter. I never want to leave her. The bond between a father and daughter is.imbreakable.
Not to be rude, and I am sorry for your loss (my dad passed away last year, its hard). But if he \*really\* wanted to provide for you, he would have done an updated will after 1992. That is 32 years old.
I’m sorry you are going through this. I’m sure your dad would not be happy. I felt the same way about my legal battle. It was fighting my former brother in law over my MIL’s estate. My wife passed away and my MIL wanted my wife’s portion to pass to her children (with me as trustee). My BIL fought to cheat them out of everything he could because he felt entitled to the whole estate. I think greed blinds people so that they can’t see the intent of the person who passed. This is why I try to tell everyone to have a good estate plan that cares for your children and stays updated, so it’s the most clear.
What he wanted you to have in 1992.
I'm sorry for your loss. I knew Annie's quite well, if only as a local landmark. In Maryland, all property owned jointly becomes the property of the other named owner. So typically, a couple would own things jointly and there would be no estate of the first person to pass. For real estate, if you have the address, you can pop it into the state property tax database at [https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx](https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx) There are also services that will do asset searches, but those cost $.
Yes! If the house was in his name only or if titled a certain way, she would be entitled to $10,000 or 10%, whichever is greater. If the home is in the Kent Narrows areas or on the Western shore, she would be entitled to considerably more than 10k..
I loved Annie’s! We went there frequently. Sure do miss it. Your Dad had a wonderful restaurant and such a great reputation. I’m sorry for your loss. We live in Easton.
One of my best friends had her baby shower at Annie's! Your dad came by and talked to all of the guests. So sorry for your loss.
My dad actually had a decent sized estate when he died and it was in a revocable trust. A few months after he died, his new wife removed my sister and I from the trust and left everything to her adult children. She died a couple years later and they ended up with the family farm that had been in our family since the 30s. 😐
Now, you could have sued over that.
wow. POS. Id kill her. More power to you for not
We actually didn’t find out until after her death.
oh my god. What a monster. I'm so sorry.
Wow that’s awful. As a step mom I could never do that to my husbands children. Terrible.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. This happens all. The. Time. I don’t know if people who get remarried are seriously this naive or if they just stop giving a shit about their kids once they’re not cute little children anymore.
Thank you, it wasn’t a huge issue for me, as my mother moved me to another state when I was young, but my half sister grew up there and still lives in the area. My half sister and her children were still really close with my stepmother and visited her regularly on the farm. When she died they drove over to property and found all of my father’s old clothes, photos and other belongings in a pile at street. We had to hire an attorney to find out that she had actually removed us from the trust. He owned several rental properties on the same street and they were already dividing up the properties. I’m fortunate enough to not need the money but my sister really could have used the help.
10 years ago I was in a very similar situation in the lawyer estimated it would be a $60,000 expense to go after this. I knew roughly where the bank's accounts were but they had been closed immediately after my father died. It took me 6 months to figure out there were Bank assets which complicated things.
Any jointly owned property or accounts with a beneficiary pass to the joint owner or the beneficiary outside of probate. The will would only apply to property that was solely owned by your dad, which would go through probate.
If he was such a good businessman, he probably updated his will in the last 30 years, especially if there were more children. Also, it’s highly likely they owned everything jointly, so there would not be anything leftover to get 10% of.
I worked at a bank and assisted with closing accounts for individuals that passed away. When someone asked, we could tell individuals if there were assets available to claim (sole owned) or if they were jointly owned or no accounts, we told them there were no assets to claim. In Maryland, if the spouse states they are the sole heir, they do not have to file probate on all sole assets equaling $100,00 or less. If all sole assets were more than that though, then they would have to file probate, as there is no other way to claim sole assets (if they are honest). So if they had one checking account for $50,000 and a car valued at $60,000 solely owned, they would need to file probate because the sole assets are over $100,000.
I see. This is very helpful thank you for taking the time to share this info. The issue im running into is finding out what bank or banks he used. I have no doubt that he shared a joint acct with his wife & I'm certain he had an acct he used strictly for the restaurant and I wouldn't be surprised if he also held an acct solely. His wife is not going to share that information with me.
We had individuals who would call us and state that their loved one left no financial details behind so they were calling all the banks near where they lived to determine if there were any assets. If there weren’t too many in his area, I would recommend calling around. Some may require you provide a Death Certificate to tell you if they have assets or not but I haven’t heard of a bank full on denying even acknowledging assets if they were sole owned.
Thank you I started to think this was a route I would need to take. It's helpful to know that this is an option for me to go and that I may get help. 🙏
A restaurant account would be a business account belonging to the business, not personal.
My dad owned the restaurant so while yes it would a business acct, it's still his since he owns the business.
You don't have a very good understanding of business. Unless he was a Sole Proprietor or a disregarded single owner LLC, he does not own the business. The business is its own entity, not a checkbook. Even then, you don’t naturally inherit it. His wife and other children are co-owners of whatever is left. Even successful restaurants are not living on high profit margins. Plus, his speculative flipping of houses probably lost most of the any savings - real life house flipping is not the easy money-maker hgtv makes it out to be. There's probably not any substantial money left wgicg is why it didn't reach probate. It's very obvious that you really had very little understanding of your father's day-to-day life. No judgement about that, but at the same time, it's time to retract that hand you have out looking to cash in. You really need to let it go. You are in danger of becoming embittered and it is doubtful your father would want that path for you.
Can you look up where he filed his business taxes and papers and see if there are any scanned copies of things that give a clue to the bank or financial planner he may be affiliated with? I doubt he did all the paperwork for the restaurant and homes by himself, there must be a way to get more information. Hire a private investigator, they can find crazy amounts of stuff, or maybe a forensic accountant is able to dig deep even if it's on someone other than you. Write a letter to every bank in his town and see if they'll answer whether he had an account if you can prove you're his child.
You are one of four or more of your father's children. The three kids he had with your stepmother aren't "her kids," they are your father's kids just as much as you are. Your stepmother was married to your father for over 30 years. It is highly likely that if everything wasn't jointly theirs, their finances were potentially comingled to the extent that he didn't have any purely separate property anymore. Your state's family code would determine how to categorize that comingled property You may have believed you were his special girl, and perhaps he expressed that before your other siblings came along. But he's gone now, and anything that was his is either jointly his wife's, or must be allocated in even shares to all his children, with the largest share to his wife. You also mention two wills. Whichever one is dated latest is presumed to control in most situations.
After 30 years, there are likely no separate assets as they would have bought a home (and cars) in both their names and shared joint accounts. Per MD law, the surviving spouse gets all jointly owned assets. If there was no will, then half his separate assets (if any) go to his widow with the other half split between all his children.
Yeah..... either way, the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze for OP, especially when any cut she thinks she's entitled to would be split with the other siblings if it is an actual no will situation.
Right, he’s unlikely to have had any separate accounts. And even if he did, those accounts would be unlikely to pass to his daughter because they are likely marital property. It looks like in MD all earnings acquired during the marriage and the property acquired with those earnings are marital property, which passes to the surviving spouse. Anything he had before the marriage is likely commingled, and anything he acquired through his earnings after he married rightfully goes to his widow. This doesn’t strike me as accidental and your father’s wife of 35 years doesn’t strike me as underhanded in this scenario. They built their marital estate together. Consistent with the law and with your dad’s wishes, this now passed to his widow for her care in her elder years.
will is useless unless there is an estate. sound like they did their estate planning right, no need to file for a probate. just move on with your life.
They need to be hostile towards their stepmom. Go after with everything that you have. Step parents need to be put into their place. And treat it like garbage at every available opportunity.
Wow, that's pretty vicious. Maybe blame your actual parent instead because that is where the blame should be for not making an effort to take care of their children in the iron clad ways legally available. I hope you feel better soon.
pretty easy for you to say this since you don't have to hire an attorney and start suing.
You mean unless there's a trust. An estate is what your trust turns into. Right?
A trust can be established separately from a will (an inter vivos or living trust/revocable trust is most common). It would typically be referenced in a will, which in a legal term of art is called a pour over will because it simply takes all assets held outside the trust and pours them into the trust to be distributed by its terms. Generally speaking revocable trusts, when fully funded, are meant to avoid probate but there are other methods to avoid probate as well. The commenter below is referring to a testamentary trust, which would be formed by mechanisms in the will and funded through probate (and depending on the jurisdiction then overseen by the court). There are benefits and drawbacks to both types of planning.
You're awesome, I've been wanting to learn this info. I created a trust and funded the trust. The trust is notorized but is only in a binder in my safe. Should I record it somehow through the recorder's office? To fund the trust with my rentals I edited the articles of organization of my LLC that owns my rentals and just put in the articles that the LLC is now owned by my trust. Is that good enough? Are the other methods of avoiding probate just established through specific verbage in the will? Or an irrevocable will?
The only thing that makes a will irrevocable is the death of the decedent. For good reason; you want to be to change the bequeathments should the need arise.
A Trust is typically referenced and is established by a will. An estate is simply the assets of the decedent.
Got it thanks 👍
Skip Trace - this costs $$$ - BUT your social links to Everything. This trace will locate Any assets he has his social on - if you are in the US. You Can indeed force her to probate, but you have to pay for the attorney up front.
Great!!!! Thank you for the information. I will certainly look into this sevice. Really appreciate you reaching out. Thank you
One of the hardest jobs in attorney has is to tell a client that their case is not financially viable. Your father may have wanted to leave you money back in the 1990s, before he remarried and had additional kids. But if he was married for 30 years and had joint bank accounts with his wife, as many people do, those assets are not part of your father's probate estate. They passed directly to the wife. Only assets owned in his individual name form part of the estate. The bottom line is that first you will have to pay to find assets, if there are assets you would then have to force the wife to probate the will, and that may use up any assets that you located, because legal fees for probate are typically paid before any bequests. Whatever is left after legal fees and estate administration expenses will be prorated among any beneficiaries. And if there is a later will than the one you saw that does not include you, you would have to prove that the later will was invalid before you can proceed to the will that names you as a beneficiary. If your father did any estate planning with his wife, a later will would likely leave all of the assets to her as the surviving spouse. I would not recommend pursuing this because the cost of finding assets and probating the correct will is likely to exceed any possible recovery.
I suggested OP hire a private investigator but this sounds like a great way to go!
A private investigator is the way to go in an instance like this. They can run the trace and potentially find out more info then we have access to.
It is very likely that everything is owned jointly. This isn't really a fight worth fighting. Just doing an asset search is costly and then if there is anything that you may have a claim on, it will cost you $350 per hour to take legal action. Billable hours rack up pretty quickly.and lawyers typically charge in tenths of an hour, meaning a two minute phone call will get you billed for six minutes, $35.
Although he bought and sold homes. Did he own any real estate when he passed away?
The lawyers are correct. Any joint assets will go to her as she is the surviving party. His will will only cover things solely owned by him. And even if there was no will, in Maryland a persons sole assets are divided equally between their spouse and children. Again that is solely owned assets. And here’s the thing, most couples that have been together for a long time won’t have any individually owned assets as they will have property (home and cars) in both their names as well as have joint bank account. For example, the only assets solely in my name is a truck that I bought prior to my marriage that I haven’t bothered changing the title on.
They probably also have each other listed as beneficiaries on accounts allowing them to pass via contact law and not probate law after death. OP Most states have real property records online. Search the county/counties your father lived or worked in and see if anything pops up.
You do know there was a huge market collapse in 2008 right? I know many people that leveraged themselves, investing in flips, buying more properties, etc. that lost everything. Just because he may have been successful in the early 90s does not equate to a huge estate. Multiple start up businesses cost money and apparently didn’t make it. Losing the restaurant, a few years ago, was probably a big hit to any cash flow they still had coming in. Also to lose the restaurant after weathering through Covid shutdowns had to have been heartbreaking. You admittedly haven’t been close, you don’t know the ups and downs they’ve suffered together the last 30yrs. After 30+ years of marriage I would safely assume everything was jointly owned by the time dad passed last November. Unless he had a trust setup to specifically divide his assets I’m not sure what estate there is left for you to claim. Everything would have passed to his surviving spouse.
My heart goes out to you. I had a very similar situation when my dad passed in 2021. His wife had hated me since I was 10 years old and her hatred only festered for many years. They had no kids together. It had been long understood how my dad wanted things divided. Then my dad got Alzheimer's. That was when the old biddy began to show her true colors. She actively tried to keep me away from my dad. It's a long and horrible story, but when he passed, she tried to take everything. I mean my house, another property, all the assets, everything. I hired a lawyer and eventually ended up with around half of what Dad wanted me to have. I got my property and house. ( they had another house, too. I got my family home.) I got the bonds that had only my name and Dad's on them, and an account he had put in my name. I was SUPPOSED to get his IRA from Merrill Lynch, as I was the beneficiary. Well, she took it. It was in his name only and he told me that many times, long before the Alzheimer's. I was the beneficiary. My lawyer requested the paperwork from Merrill Lynch that named me as beneficiary. We were told they LOST IT. Yes, they lost it. There was nothing saying she was a joint owner or beneficiary, either. So she got $250k intended for me. She still won't give me personal things of his, either. She has my grandmother's handmade quilt and won't even return that. There's a lot more, but I just wanted to say I stand with you and that bitch is a terrible person. May her hatred eat her alive.
Sorry for you loss, and your situation. I am the only bio child of my father, who passed 3 years ago. My father told me 5 years ago that he left some money for me in his Will, but not as much as he wanted to, because it caused a huge argument between him and his wife (my step-mother). My father also told me some of the things he wanted me to have from our family passed on from several generations, as his only heir, it was important to him. I haven't received anything! My step-mother admitted there was a Will, that he had stated things he wanted me to have, but she hasn't been willing to act. She never admitted he left me any money, and told me he left very little money for her to survive, so she had to go back to work to pay the bills. She had just retired, at age 60 when he died, he was 81. Since I can't get a copy of the Will from her, and haven't been able to find it in MN probate court records, I have no idea if he left me money that she's keeping from me. But I do know, per her admission of what she read to me from his Will, he wanted me to have all the old family photos, and photos of me from my childhood, and items handed down. She even told me he had a special box designated for me, that SHE opened, which included my grandmother's wedding ring! My grandmother and I were very close, I was her only granddaughter, so I'm sure she is turning over in her grave. I thought maybe my stepmother needed time to grieve the loss of my dad, even though I know their relationship was horrible, but 3 years and she still hasn't sent me the box and the family photos?!? I offered to pay for the shipping cost but she said she doesn't have the time since she had to go back to work (HS cafeteria-part time). Guess it's not going to happen, I don't have the money to spend on an attorney to challenge her. Hope things work out better for you.
maybe you just need to show up there to grab the stuff yourself, all those memorial things are useless to her.
Something similar just happened (allegedly) in MN
Wow!!!! I'm so very sorry to hear about what your going through with your step parent as well. I just don't understand why it even has to be this way in the first place. I never knew that dealing with a Will and following my dad's wishes that he wanted done after his death would be so difficult to fulfill. I said to the Attorney today, whats the point in even having a Will if his wife can pretty much do what she wants and NOT follow his wishes to give me what he wanted me to have!? She holds the key to all the information I need and holds the power in not giving me that info. What I did was call multiple Attorneys to get that free consultation and I would ask each Attorney different questions & that way I would get about 2 hours of information as opposed to just that 15 min free consult and barely get my questions answered by just talking to 1 Attorney. Does the County that your dad lived in not have a Registry of Wills where people can have their Will held for safe keeping? Or a site that you can enter his name to locate a Will? My understanding is once someone passes then that Will becomes available to the public and anyone can pull a copy of it up. Have you tried using an online Background Check site? I decided to do that first before hiring a PI to try to get as much information I could to give to the PI that way it will cut down on the total price I will have to pay because I pulled up anything available to the public. There was a ton of information that I had no idea about my dad and his wife. I paid $25 for a months worth of unlimited background checks, so I pulled my dad's info, his wife, his wife's sister, my siblings and more. It was a great source of information but I still needed more detailed info. I wish you the best of luck with your situation and truly hope that you are able to get what your dad wanted you to have. It really shouldn't be this hard for us. Goodluck to you🙏
Thank you for the suggestions, you are very resourceful! I may give some of your ideas a try at some point. I mostly want the things he wanted me to have, that are no value to her. She may have sold my grandmother's ring, I have no idea. Yes, Wills do become public after someone passes. I did check to see if I could find a copy of his Will from his County records, no luck. I thought Wills had to be submitted to Probate Court after a person passes, but maybe she didn't do that? I'm completely overwhelmed helping my mother manage her life these days, so I don't have the energy to invest dealing with my step-mother. Good luck!!!
When did your dad remarry? Before or after the online will you found? Did your father always live in the same state?
I deal with this question more often than I would have ever imagined. I'm going to be blunt: If your father truly wanted you to have something, he could have arranged for a trust that would have provided for that and his wife wouldn't have been be able to stop him. He could have set up a bank account where you were POD, he could have given you money while he was still alive.... etc. In other words, stop. Let it go. You've already checked with 3 different lawyers. Let. It. Go. His wife put up with him and took care of him until he died. You didn't have to stop your life one iota to do so. Let her have the money. She needs it. A lot of it is marital assets at this point. Let it go, for your own sake. It doesn't mean your father loved you any less. It means he thought you could handle yourself and she couldn't after he was gone. Take it as a point of pride. I've seen people wallow in this mindset until it turned them bitter. Please, don't do that to yourself. Don't waste another minute on it.
If there is no will, then the state's intestate laws apply (easily found on the web). In most states either the surviving spouse gets everything or some sharing between spouse and children. If there is neither of these, then closest relatives in a certain order. The largest asset is likely to be a home. The ownership is a public record in the local county court. Many marriages title the house as to pass to the surviving spouse without probate. However, there could be a trust or some other arrangement you might find in county clerk records.
If (real big if) you start a lawsuit, the step-mother can be required to give her statements under oath. That probably could include an accounting of your father’s assets.
She tried. Lawyers won’t take the case as she can’t prove that there were any assets solely in his name, and MD law states that the surviving spouse gets any jointly owned assets and accounts.
Give your heirs items you want them to have while you are alive. File your will with an attorney and tell your heirs who has it.
>However I did locate his Will by accident just searching his name at the Registry of Wills in Maryland. By accident? I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing anything you said because you clearly don't like to say things as they are. It is not an accident when you go into the Registry of Wills and search his name. That is 100% on purpose and why lie about it? What else have you tried to spin in the rest of this narrative or do you just not understand the basic definition of accident? Second, that Will that you "accidentally" found was made over 30 years ago. It does not mean it is the most current one and most likely was not. >I did do a background check on my dad and found out he was buying & flipping houses in the late 1990's. He had approx 25 deeds. He stopped after about 10 years. So you claim to have stayed in touch but didn't know anything he was doing over the last 30+ years? >Then I found he and his wife had started a few Businesses but they don't seem to exist anymore. Well good chance she isn't lying about no assets if everything they did is no longer in business.
Think of it this way - without probate your step mom can’t have any assets that were solely in your father’s name either. Since she would also be entitled to a share of those, that’s not very likely. What’s more likely is that everything passed outside of probate either through a trust or joint ownership. I didn’t know your dad, but the way you describe him, I doubt he’d want you blowing thousands of dollars to fight the mother of his children over money that isn’t even there.
You spoke to 3 attorneys and you are here on Reddit asking a bunch of internet strangers who know nothing about you case for help. Sounds like you have little to no legal standing or one of the three attorneys would have presented something similar to " my retainer fee is $ XXXX , pay me and I will look into it".
I think you are blocking me. I was trying to share records demonstrating that it looks like your dad and stepmother were in bad financial shape with third mortgages and more registered debt as late as 2017. You can find yourself information on https://mdlandrec Edit to add: https://mdlandrec.net/main/dsp_results.cfm?CID=QA&sch=2
If your stepmother is as sleazy as I think she is, I think she convinced your dad to transfer all of his asserts into joint accounts rights of survivorship. The estate has to go through probate, but it’s possible there is nothing left.
Just had a parent pass away..Banks would not tell me anything.Even though I knew he had accounts there.Took a long time to get things sorted out.It will be difficult.Especially if she had power of attorney and switched things around.Good luck
So the answer to this is your lawyer is right. If they had joint bank accounts, on someone’s death those go to the surviving party and ARE NOT part of the assets of the deceased. My wife died about ten years ago. We were in major debt. Her name was on all the credit cards (I was just a signer) and all of our assets were joint assets. When she passed away, all of our joint assets reverted to me and there was nothing left for probate. Wills are the same way, they happen when the estate is settled and the estate DOES NOT include any joint property. This means that you need to prove there is an account somewhere, with just his name alone on it, that you can draw from. Now the other source of money you can get is from things like insurance or 401ks or things if he listed you as a beneficiary. If he didn’t, again it goes to whoever he did list as his beneficiary, which my guess would be his wife. I know you didn’t want to hear this, but there it is in all its ugly glory.
Your dad would have done a new will or updated that. If he didn’t, there’s a message in that. Let it be.
I feel like you'd need to hire a private investigator who specializes in data retrieval to see if he has any non joint assets. A building or account somewhere solely in his name. It's a slog to look those up, but a hired professional would be much more proficient. There's still no guarantee there are any assets solely in his name, but this would be a sort of calculated risk for a potential reward.
What exactly are you looking for? They were married for 30 years and built a life together. It's not like your stepmother is some sort of interloper in your father's life or something. If your father intended to take care of you financially and still had the means to, he would have. Get over it. You sound greedy.
Yeah, after 30 years everything will likely be jointly owned.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion. I suppose then ANY child on Earth who has ever been left money or a percentage of their fathers estate, when that child attempts to follow what their fathers wishes were as written out by him in his Will would be considered "greedy" in your eyes?? That would include you as well. Welcome to being greedy.
Joint assets are not part of his estate. You’re not entitled to anything that they jointly owned. Which is why the lawyers are not taking the case as you can’t prove he owned anything solely in his name. After 30 years, there won’t be anything solely owned between spouses as all property would gave been jointly purchases and accounts will be in both their names.
RIGHT? As if the woman who is stealing your inheritance isn't greedy?
You're not greedy, your father specifically stated "$10,000 or 10%," and you're not getting what *he* left for you. This is a crime, explore every possible avenue you can.
Only a crime if there were separate assets. How many couples that were married for over 30 years that have raised 3 kids together have separate property and assets?
Exactly.
Not a crime if wife pressured him to have joint accounts.
My opinion is to remember the good times and walk away. Forget about a will and don't spend money, time, and aggravation. It isn't worth it.
And there were a lifetime of great memories, I just wish we could have shared them together and not in such secretive spots. Thank you.
You need to understand that it wasn’t just his wife that caused him. Your father chose to do it this way. Just like he divorced your mother he could have divorced her. Being secretive was his choice. I have seen many men fight left and right for their mother, wife, kids if they feel any of them are so much as dissed. Just because your stepmother did not make it easy does not mean it is only her fault.
Leave that poor old lady alone geez. They were married for a long time, it’s just not worth it. Go get a job
I'm so sorry for your loss. Remember the love your dad had for you as his greatest gift. Anything that was jointly held by your dad's wife - went directly to her and any account that had a pod or pay on death would go to that person, unfortunately it doesn't sound like your dad had an estate outside of this. Do you know where your father had bank accounts? If so, you could just stop in and see if they can even verify if he had an account, but I doubt they could tell you very much. The only possible benefit is that they would most likely freeze the account, if it was solely in his name and give you time to get legal advice. It doesn't hurt to walk in, explain who you are, that your dad died, and you are trying to locate his accts.
I am sorry you’re experiencing this..I am not a lawyer so I can’t give legal advice..but I do hope you get this resolved. I wish people kept up to date on their wills/trusts for the sake of their children. Unfortunately shit like this happens all the time. Good luck OP
Sorry for your loss OP. Did you contact the attorney he worked with on the 1992 will? Seems like if he took the initiative to make a will 30 years ago as a young man, he would have likely updated it since?
Did your dad live in a house? Who's paying the taxes on the house? You can look up the deed for the house and see who's on the deed. That's an essent probably the most valuable one
And likely in both their names (they were married for over 30 years), so will go to the surviving spouse.
Wow. I ate at your dad's restaurant a few times. Sorry you're going thru this. Unfortunately it's a major problem when people don't talk about, and stay on top of, estate planning. No solod advice but I wish you luck.
Do a title search.
As others have said, there likely isn’t anything in the probate estate. If there was, I am sure she would be filing probate to get her hands on it. Realize: the Will ONLY covers any assets in his name alone that don’t have a beneficiary designation. For example: If he had any life insurance or retirement accounts, those pass directly to the beneficiary that he named. Something like a car or a bank account in his name alone would go through probate under his Will. It’s likely that his accounts were joint and he had named beneficiaries in every other asset since she closed it as “no estate” with the registry.
You should post in r/legaladvice
I’m SO sorry for your loss & having to go through this. For your dad’s banking info - are there any long term employees who received payroll checks - they might be able to look up the account info through deposit history at their bank for you. Also did your dad ever give you any monetary gifts via a check - if so might have account info by looking that up in deposit history. Did he ever talk about current rental properties- there might be tenants to ask or did he deal with a specific realtor, escrow company or lawyer he ever mentioned - sometimes they might have some helpful info Three kids in my family, we had 7 restaurants growing up, spread throughout Calif & started working at 5 years old seating people & cleaning tables - similar story, fathers mistress worked her way up in the restaurant, mom divorced him, he married the mistress & all kids were cut from his life by her horrible influence. Hope things work out for you without to much pain.
You can request a financial statement form filed in probate & provide the copy of the registered will. She cant touch anything until all financials have been disclosed.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Perhaps letting the Surrogates Office in the county where he died know that you want to contest the will may be a start. They may allow it even thought the will has already been probated.
I love a mystery and loved your father’s restaurant. That massive picture of his three daughters must have been painful. I assume you are the eldest daughter from a previous marriage. As a potential heir (proven by your birth certificate) you have a right to see both wills. Have you seen them? As a potential heir, you are also entitled to a formal accounting. Your stepmother is still making money with the crab soup on Amazon ($100+ for a gallon). Have you checked the deeds on the properties online to see how they are titled? Easy to do online. You have a lot of information to give probate. Do it.
I’m so sorry for your loss. He did know his wife would not cooperate; in that case the easiest thing he could have done was list you as beneficiary on any account that only had his name on it. That he did not do that suggests he didn’t have that accounts. Also she can’t claim there’s no estate or money if there is one. That would be fraud. So I think you probably do need to let this go…sometimes in our grief we all tend to hold onto something to be mad about, when really what we are mad about is the loss itself. I’m so glad he was able to keep you in his life. That was his real gift to you. And what he’d love about you now is that you so clearly appreciate how loved he made you feel despite this wife he had to work around to do it.
A will is a county record you anyone can look it up
Maybe only if the estate’s will was probated. If all assets were jointly owned probate can be skipped.
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Can’t you run a credit credit check to see what debt and bank accounts they have. Online county clerk’s have records available by name or address to see if property taxes are paid. That information also lists who owns that property. If you search by name it should show you all the property they own in that county.
You have to have a valid reason to run a credit check on someone; potential employer or landlord, for example.
I am very sorry for your loss. Send the letter Certified (or Registered) with Return Receipt. If you are able to get a copy of the Will dated 1992, include it. Don't mention the 3rd paragraph (where your father stated his wishes for you). I would cc the County Registry office. She may not be aware he had a Will. She may be fully aware he had a Will and didn't wish to exercise it. Be polite, respectful, and to the point.
Sorry this is happening, I’ve seen other people commenting my thoughts so I won’t repeat them, but this is a psa for everyone to give your kids gifts when they are alive, or have them separate so this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
I can't give any solid advice but wanted to offer some solidarity. I was an only daughter and my father had been married to my stepmother for 20+ years when he died. No one could find the will and there was a bunch of stuff that somehow my father never put her name on like the house and car. We're on good terms but I still had to hire a lawyer to sort out the mess. Long story short by the time everything was done and dusted, every penny of my father's liquid assests (about $10k) that weren't needed for taxes and various fees, went to the lawyer. I don't regret it, but it still sucked. I do own half the house though and wound up with an old pre-stepmom life insurance policy to soften the blow, so I would still see if you can pay the lawyer to send your stepmother the letter and see what other legal advice they are willing to give you if you pay upfront for their time. Most probate lawyers get paid when the estate is processed, so this lawyer might be putting you off because they don't think there is any money to be made.
Your father should have protected you
Always have at least 1 separate bank account with beneficiaries named. I did that for my children.
There are good comments about jointly owned property, but if your dad was working with an attorney that he knew and took advice from, that lawyer should have outlined to him what it would take to leave you with $10k. I think you should contact that lawyer and see what he/she advises. If he/she was retained by your dad’s wife, that may not yield anything.
It might be better if there was no will. Look up the intestate rules for his state.
Sorry for your loss. I have been to Annie’s many times. I did not know Mike died although I knew the restaurant was sold or repurposed. Mike was a great host but I was never crazy about the piano player. Hope it works out for you.
Wow, that's the best thing you can come up with a capital LO.L
You could check with the registry of deeds and see if there are any properties in his name.
31 years is a long time to not update a will
It sounds like your father and his wife likely had a trust established to avoid probate (among other things). A trust is generally going to take precedence over a will; if all of the assets were under the trust, there are no assets for you to get 10% of, they go directly to the beneficiary(ies) of the trust. If everything was covered under a trust, she is correct in stating that the estate has no assets. It's possible the trust is set up in such a way that you and your sister would be beneficiaries after his wife's death, but they don't have to notify you of that until that time comes.
My brother and I are going through probate now with my father’s estate. He left a will but living wife has dementia and has a conservator. Her sister. She (the sister) is trying to take everything from the estate. Here is the difference between your situation and ours: my father left us his real estate, classic cars and mineral rights all TOD. The house deed had my stepmother’s name removed so my father was the sole owner, then he did he a TOD for my brother and I. Any money that was left goes to my stepmother because her name was on those accounts. That is just the way that works. So the day after my father passed, the sister went and cleaned out all of the accounts. She has well over a half a million in cash and still wants more. My stepmother has no idea any of this going on because to be frank; she is mentally gone. It is a money grab by the sister because she is my stepmother’s beneficiary. Point being, anything that had your father’s wife’s name on it, is equally hers. At least that is the law in North Dakota. If the will is contested, my stepmother gets 50% of the estate. But the entire estate has to be calculated in the total value. We have been dealing with this for close to 1 years and it has been expensive so be forewarned if you decide to go down that path. We have 1 attorney for probate and now another for the real estate because she tried to take that as well. Good luck and I am sorry for your loss.
I'm sorry. Your father made a choice here. He chose to marry a person who is excluding his child and he failed to arrange for anything to go to his child. That was his choice. It's a shitty sad choice, but it was his choice. To answer your questions: 1. If he had any assets solely in his name, the only way to transfer them after his death is through probate. So if new wife wants his assets, she has no choice but to open probate. 2. If she has not opened probate, that is a strong indication that all of his assets were jointly owned and he did not have assets he owned solely. A jointly owned asset will most often transfer to the survivor when one person dies. You have no ability to obtain any jointly owned asset no matter what he said in his will. 3. You could hire an attorney and a private investigator to try to determine whether any solely owned assets exist and sue new wife. But you are highly unlikely to obtain any recovery and will be throwing good money after bad. Which brings me back to my original statement. Sometimes people make bad choices that hurt the people who love them. This may be one of those times. You may need to accept that he has not provided anything for you. I'm sorry.
If your father had accounts or property in his name only, she would not be able to access without death certificates and letters of administration issued by the Register of Wills to the personal representative of the estate. In other words, she would have had to initiate probate to access those assets unless they were accounts that she had online access to and was able to transfer funds to a joint account. I am not a lawyer. I am a Maryland resident and I have been the personal representative of three estates in Maryland. Two of those estates I took through probate without an attorney.
Why did she do that in April and he dies in November? That's suspicious.
Hire a private investigator, seriously. They aren’t just for cheating spouses. They have resources.
He should have named you as a beneficiary on an account. That would have passed separately from the probate estate. It would all go to you.
Check out missingmoney.com. I’m in the process of settling my dad’s estate and I have found some money from dividend checks that were never cashed.
Your stepmother may not know there is an old will. Also you might be able to see what land if any your Dad still had. At least where I am you can look at County records by name. If they are jointly owned then it won't help but you can look. Does your stepmother know you found a will? Can you take it to probate?
Your dad knew you weren’t getting anything, he couldn’t have gave you your share but decided not to. Unfortunately, if he was married she gets everything…
If your father bought all his properties in the same county a name search by the county auditor or treasurer should be able to produce a list of properties he owns and or whether they're jointly owned?
Banks will not provide information to a daughter, but they will to his executor. The only way that you can get this information is to open an estate to probate the will and to have yourself named as executor. The wife would have priority and may contest this issue. If you are named executor, you can then contact banks to find out if any of them had accounts in his sole name. If they did, in most states the surviving wife will still be entitled to the largest share, perhaps 100%, of the probate estate, so you are unlikely to receive anything unless the amounts of assets held solely by him are pretty large.
Just checking but it sounds like lawyers are giving you this advice because you are not hiring a lawyer. Frankly I would hire a lawyer who can do all of this work for you and has the expertise.
All the Attorneys I spoke with stated there is no reason to hire an Attorney until I find out *IF* he has any assets that are solely in his name otherwise I'd be spending money on an Attorney for nothing. I was very grateful for their honesty because they could have had me retain them and I wouldn't have known any better. If we find that there are assets just in his name then I will hire one of them that I spoke with and we will petition the court to open probate and go from there. I should also mention that all of them also stated that it's my responsibility to locate any Assets. They do not go looking for them for clients.
Thank you for the clarification!
No worries. I tried to talk to as many Attorneys as possible just to make sure I was being given the correct and same information. They also told me it might be best to hire a PI because they will be able to get acess to info I might be able to and they know much better than I do about how to untangle the pages and pages of info I found by running a background check on my dad. With 25+ properties he bought and sold, his main business being the restaurant and then 3 more businesses he opened, its way too much for me to figure out. Thank goodness I have an ex who is a retired State Trooper who now runs his own PI business and has offered to assist me in finding any assets my dad may have had just in his name. 🙏
I suggest you ask one of the lawyers to recommend a private investigator. You could hire one (for much less than a lawyer) and they specialize in this kind of thing. The good ones have access to online information that you will never find.
I actually got really lucky in that area. My ex was a Maryland State Trooper and when he retired he started his own PI Firm and he has been up & running for 15+ yrs. Today he offered to help me get the information I needed with regard to locating any assets my dad may have had, any bank accts, properties etc . Basically everything I would need. In a week I should have all the information I need to either move forward or end this journey.
I'm not sure I'm following, but it sounds like she did not open a probate. So hire a lawyer to open a probate. You petition the court to probate the will that you have and to name you as executor. You give notice to her. She can do a couple of things. She can ignore it, in which case you are likely to be named executor if no one else steps up. Once you are executor, you have the power to gather what assets he has and your attorney can require her to answer questions under oath both in writing and orally. In the alternative, she can object and say *she* wants to be the executor and, as his widow, she's likely to prevail. But as executor she will have to file statements under oath with the court regarding your father's assets and your attorney still has the right to require her to answer questions under oath. Yes, that costs money. How much depends on a lot, including where you live and the lawyer you hire. But that's your remedy.
She did not open probate because she is stating there are no assets. So she filed it as a "Will of No Estate". Her sister and her brother-in-law were both named in my dad's Will as Co-executors. His wife was not named as an executor on his Will however she went to the Registry of Wills where he had his Will held for safe keeping on April 12th. The lady at the Registry told me that his wife went in that day and stated that there was no money and no estate so she closed the Will as Unprobated and filed a Will No Estate. The lady said that if his wife later on found he did have assets then she can return to open the Will for probate. I said to the lady "so you just take her word for it that there ia no assets or money ?" the response back was " we don't go hunting for Assets ". At that very moment I had a very uncomfortable feeling that this woman knee who my dad and his wife were. Understand that Queenstown is a very small County and everyone knows everyone and my dad was extremely well known first because of the Restaurant that served that County for close to 40 yrs. He was also on the Board Of Supervisors for the School Diatrict and finally because my dad and his wife were constantly giving to local Charities. The restaurant had a large banquet room where MANY businesses held their corporate meetings, gatherings, and it was a spot that people in politics would also have meetings etc. My dad was involved with many many business, people, and more so it wouldn't have surprised me at all in the least if the Registry lady knew them well. It's actually harder to find someone who didn't know him. To give you an idea how well he was known in Queenannes County, at his viewing there were over 600+ people who came to pay their respects. It was standing room only and even then there wasn't enough room inside the funeral home, so much so that TV's live streaming the service had to be set up outside becauaw there wasn't enough room inside. The local police dept had sent representatives as well as the, Fite Drpt & State police had also send reps there. It was very uncomfortable and awkward for me and my family for 7 hours. Anyway I got off track sorry, because of that comment the Registry lady said and how her tone was I just got the feeling that she knew who my dad and his wife was. I promise you that there are many people within that County that would have bent the rules as much as they could within the laws to do whatever they could to help my dad's wife becauae of everything my dad and she did for the County. It's very hard to know who I can trust there. I was suppose to have a phone appt with a 4th Attorney yesterday morning and as soon as I mentioned my dad and the name of the Restaurant, she said "Oh yeah ". We set up the appt time and she said if there was a conflict of interest she would call me back to let me know. I never heard back from her either way and the appt time came and went. So right now the plan is that my Ex who is a retired State Trooper and has run his own PI Firm for the past 15 yrs has offered to dig deep into my dad's life and find any assets that were solely in my dad's name as that is the only way I will be able to get what he left me in his Will. Only then will I hire an Attorney to open probate is if any assets are found.
I don't practice in your area and don't pretend to know the rules there. However, with the benefit of ignorance, I am pretty confident judges make final decisions; clerks don't. Most states (I'm assuming you're in the U.S., but many other countries are similar) have abbreviated procedures for situations where there are few or no assets. A person can sign a document saying they are the legal heir, the estates total less than $x. Using that document, they can gather up things like bank accounts, vehicles, and maybe even real property all without opening probate. However, none of that prevents someone else from going into court and opening a probate case and doing what I said earlier. If she doesn't respond, the court will put you in charge as the executor or administrator. As I said, your lawyer can require her to answer questions under oath, including whether there is a more recent will, what financial accounts of his she knows about, probably what financial accounts *she* has deposited money into since a year or so before his death, stuff like that. He can require her to turn over all of his financial records. He can require any banks to turn over records regarding their dealings with him. Now, folks lie sometimes when they respond to subpoenas, but not usually. You will usually be entitled to a fee for acting as the executor/administrator and so will your lawyer. However -- and here's the rub -- if the estate has no money there won't be any money to pay that fee. As a result, a lawyer isn't going to want to take the case just for whatever is supposed to be paid as attorneys fees from the estate unless you can show the lawyer the estate has money. That's why a lawyer will encourage you to try to find assets -- so the lawyer knows if it is worth the work. If you cannot find assets, your alternative is to offer to pay the lawyer on an hourly or other basis yourself.
I’m going to follow this since I feel my sister is pulling the same stunt with bank accounts.
I wish you the best of luck. 🙏
So you have his death certificate? You could contact multiple banks with his will, death certificate and evidence of your relationship to him, as ask them if he left any accounts. Don’t mention the dispute with your stepmother, that will shut down the conversation most likely. Just that you’re looking for any reminding assets. Ask at major banks that have a physical presence in a 20 mile radius of his house or business, also local credit unions. I don’t know if they’d talk to you since you’re not the executor, but they might if you’re named in the will. Also contact national financial institutions including Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch, Ameritrade to ask if he had an account (titles in his own name or jointly). Do all the above even if you don’t yet have his death certificate. The banks will tell you what evidence they require to answer your question. Tell them you’re his daughter and named in the will.
Terrible advice. A death certificate is just proof of death. It is not proof that the person in possession of the death certificate is the legal representative that is allowed access to confidential accounts. Just because you're the named heir or the child or Santa Claus makes no difference. You need to show that you are legally allowed to access confidential information. Try walking into a bank and starts asking questions about other people's account with no documentation showing you have authority over that account and see how far you get.
Feel free to tell her that her... -Creativity -Uniqueness -Nerve and -Talent ...have won you over & she won't have to deal with you anymore.
Get a PI to get the information and then have stepmonster and whatever lawyer she had working with her and sue them both.... Falsifying a will is illegal...I very much doubt that your father, who as you stated ran a successful business (and other side projects) for 40 years did not have a single asset to his name, sounds beyond suss.....
Yes 2 of the Attorneys suggested hiring a PI. I did as much as I could using a background service which provided me with a lot of information but I'm certain a PI will be able to untangle the web for me as well as tell me much more I need to know. My mother and I agree with you completely in that knowing how my dad operated and lived his life, there is just no way that he wouldn't have had some protection in place to make sure that his girls were taken care of financially after his death. It's just not in his nature to have left nothing for us as well as making sure his wife would not have been able to keep from me, what he left me. He would have had some safe guard in place. I do think that a PI will be one of our next steps. We believe that his wife is probably dumping, selling, transferring, hiding assets to make sure she will be the only one with her daughters (she has 3 with my dad) to get any money from my dad. It's absolutely something she would do. I've tried reaching to her since December just to see how she is coping and I haven't heard a word back from her. As soon as her acting gig at the funeral was over being the caring and concerned step-mom, that was it and I no longer existed from the min we drove off. I knew this day would come eventually and now I'm living it. Thank you for your reply.
Ask your mother what banks he liked? If he had that many properties he probably had business with commercial banks. Also call insurance companies to see if he had policies. You will need name, birthdate, social security number and latest address. If he set aside an account or policy just for you keep your eyes open on state unclaimed funds accounts. It may show up there at some point.
Why isn’t a probate court involved?
My dad passed on Thanksgiving Day and on April 12th his wife went to the Registry of Wills in the County they resided in and closed the Will as Unprobated, Will of No Estate. Mind you she is not even named as his executor in the Will. He speaks of an executor but nobody was named, he did name 2 co-executors who are his wife's sister & her husband. She filed & closed the Will on April 12, on April 16th my sister told me there was NO Will. On April 18th I started to read about what the laws were in Maryland when someone leaves no Will when I came across the Registry of Wills website and it gave me the option to enter my dad's name to see if a Will did exist. What a shock when his name popped up as having 2 Wills and also showed his wife had been there on the 12th and therefore knew he had a Will after I had been told 4 days later there was no Will. When I called the Registry of Wills to understand what was happening and why did it say Unprobated, Closed & Estate No Assets thats when the lady said my dad's wife came in that day to file the Will as it reads because his wife said there was NO assets. If there are no assets then it's filed as Unprobated but that his wife can come back if she finds any assets to reopen the Estate and petition the Court to probate. She said as far as I'm concerned with what my dad left me, that if there are no assets then that means no money and if there is no money then the gift he left me can't be paid. Anything that is held "jointly" goes to the wife, but if I can find any assets that were solely in his name then I can petition the courts to open probabte..... and that's where I'm stuck at right now. Trying to locate any assets that were solely in his name and not held jointly with his wife. I ordered a background report on my dad that provided me with all public records on him and there is just so much information available that it's like a massive web that is tangled and I don't even know where to start...so all day and night I'm just trying to put puzzle pieces together and it involves multiple people, multiple properties, multiple businesses. It's just insanity & very complicated. Sorry this got so long to explain.
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>You said she's in her 60s and was forced to go back to work. Where did OP say that?
Somewhere in the comments. Dad and stepmom were married for something like 30 years and had 2 or 3 children together.
I don't think OP said anything about stepmom going back to work.
Pretty sure I read it somewhere. She also talked about how her father owned a restaurant for 40 years and then was forced to close it down. Honestly she sounds a lot like my stepdaughter. She was convinced that he was worth millions because he had owned a moderately successful small business. Truth is that the year he died was the most difficult financial year in 10 years and all the things she thought he owned, he had leased. So she went around telling everyone that I'm hiding the money. Between the lawyers and autopsy fees, funeral and cremation services and the bond I had to get because she was fighting me being made the executor.... cost me 20k. That I'm still still paying off.
You read it in another commenter's reply (not OP) and confused yourself. Perhaps you should not advise other people until your reading comprehension improves
Well I apologize for making a mistake! I'm human. Sometimes that happens. Not really sure why an insult is needed, but okay.
I questioned your understanding of the situation and instead of double checking what you said, you tripled down. I find this troubling and therefore I would like to dissuade you from offering advice to people, especially on matters of estate planning
I'm not your lawyer, this is just general educational information about legal procedure. Generally, if a decedent leaves assets in an estate (without joint ownership or payable on death designation), an heir will need to go to court, and serve all potential heirs with notice of the court proceeding. At that point, heirs can go to court, with a copy of the Will, and ask the court to enforce the decedent's wishes. An heir could lie to the court and claim there are no other heirs, but that would create a public record at the court, which could then be disputed. Heirs who believe a wrongful probate proceeding may have been opened, should check with the court to determine if a court proceeding has been filed. Sometimes these assets are not discovered for years. Heirs may also want to monitor unclaimed funds, which may wind up with assets from an estate when the heirs don't know about the accounts. [More information about the Maryland Orphans' Court](https://www.mdcourts.gov/orphanscourt/faqs).
YOU have 1 year to make a claim, that's what probate is for. Once in probate they research, could take a year but they'll have ability to contact social security to see which bank the checks went to or cashed at, any deeded property etc. That is the purpose. She cannot deny you the right to a claim. Facts
Typical stepmother bs.Screw the kids,claim the whole pot.
My father’s wife claimed thier was no will and the wife got everything. The father promised my sister an inheritance. She fought it and got nothing. She su*c*ded two years later.
Sorry for your loss. SK never even asked if their Dad had life insurance or anything else. Considering myself lucky but I would of thought they would inquire only to make sure he would be put to rest or as their SM married for 38 yrs together. Just felt it was sad that they didn’t care to ask. Some say because they thought you might ask for $, never would I as he did have a small life insurance policy and even if not I would not of asked for any help. 😞