For the purpose of probate, how could you prove that you were adopted (so that you am still related to the decedent) if you were unable to obtain a copy of your birth/adoption record because the adoption might have been "private"?
I 25 (f) got a letter in the mail saying I have a month to give the local prostate court an inventory of my late husband estate. I’m not sure what that means or how to begin that process. He was only 22 when he passed and didn’t have much besides a savings account with very little in it and his car which was totaled in his accident. Please help.
Im told by his girlfriend at the time that be had money saved but she wasnt aware of the amount, they werent married, and she had no control of the account. He has no will.
She took his death certificate to the bank, and they told her that they needed something from the surrogate court in order to proceed with anything. I dont know where to start and if he has alot of money to even find it worth it to hire a lawyer for thousands of dollars so im pretty stumped here and could use advice. Apparently he had no debts besides potentially medical and he owed taxes?? I have no clue. His girlfriend told me this. Please help :(
Here are the relevant facts:-
Given that I am not on speaking terms with my brother, could he still block/resist my probate action to inherit one-half of the decedent's estate?
My cousin recently won a probate hearing for my late great aunts estate. It seems as though my great aunt never had her estate closed, and my cousin and her brother were the heirs to the estate. My male cousin said in the hearing that his father dealt with the estate right after my great aunt passed away. The court has awarded my female cousin to be the administrator of my great aunts estate. Recently she asked me to provide her with my birth certificate and other legal documents, such as marriage license, death certificates, and other birth certificates of my ancestors going back as far as I can remember. She wants those documents for both my mother and my father side of the family.
I do believe that my grandmother and my great aunt had land in North Carolina that was given to them by my great great grandfather after he passed away. So I assume that this has something to do with the land that my grandmother and great aunt both owned. My question is why would she need those legal documents from me in order to administrate the estate for my great aunt which I am not an heir to or have anything to do with outside of her being related to my grandmother? Could it be that my grandmother’s property and my great aunts property are connected or combined in someway and she needs me to establish lineage?
Went through probate thinking relative had 40k, under the 75k limit. Turns out might about 76-78k.
Probate for smaller amount is almost done.
I assuming I will have to pay more to atty if this is the case.
This is in Bexar county.
Anyone encounter similar issues, and what did you do? How did it play out?
edit: I’m only $750 over. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
A little background. My elderly father passed away in the summer of 2023. He was elderly and was drafting wills left and right near the end (he was an attorney) and was sadly making some bad decisions.
My aunt was the original executor of his last will (a weird choice) but was fired in late 2023 for unresponsiveness and I was appointed in her place. We hired a local probate attorney and paid him $10,000. The will itself is pretty simple with one caveat: the will stated that “education trusts” were to be set up for his 5 grandchildren but they were never funded. Instead, he had five cashiers checks made out to them for $50K apiece. So it’s all in limbo. We can’t do anything with the checks.
Years have dragged on and the court has heard our arguments, even appointing an attorney for the grandchild who’s still a minor (the other kids are all adults). From my perspective the court hasn’t done anything in months and the new attorney appointed by the court for my daughter hadn’t reached out to us despite us reaching out to her months ago.
Is this normal? Will this thing just drag out for more years??
