It Just Keeps Getting Better......super long rant sorry

[piecemaker]

Sorry to hear about your family. There is nothing like death to bring out the greed in those long last relitives. Hope things go better for you and your mom

 

[birdnutz]

My DH is on the other side of the story. His father had always told him that his grandsons would inherite everything. He passed away 2 days before Christmas. We couldn't make it back for the funeral because of weather. I don't think the reality has really sunk home for my DH.
I guess the gist of my story is this. They ( DH's Dad and DH's stepmom) both have children by their 1st marriage & 1 child together. Stepmom is very partial to her children. According to what I found on the internet of Iowa law is: If you own land that it will automatically go into probate.Even if you have a will. If there are children from a previous marriage the spouse will get the first $50,000.00 and 1/2 balance of property. The other 1/2 is to be divided among your heirs in equal shares.
But would his still be true if parents names are on the property as equal owners? We don'twant to take anything from his woman. But I'm worried that down the line she will manage to cut his previous children out of an inheritance. If this sounds greedy I'm sorry,it's not meant to be. Heck my DH isn't even going to recieve anything. They told us that their will would jump a generation to my children. I just don't want to set back and allow this woman to take something away from my kids that their grandfather wanted them to have. Assuming that she will that is. It seems like a real akward position. A darn if you do,darn if you don't thing. Be thought of as greedy or take the chance that you loose everything.

 

[skirbo]

Quote:
That's not unusual and it's not a bad thing. Having any kind of significant assets that need to be distributed after a death generally means that your will must be probated. Probate courts are not just the venue for arguing over who gets what, it's also the venue for changing ownership officially of things that can't normally change hands without the signature of the titled owner, in this case, the decedent. The court gives the administrator/rix (no will) or executor/ix (will) the authority to sign deeds, titles and distribute monies, among other things.

Quote:
That question has more than one answer, because people can hold real estate together in a variety of ways, not just percentage of ownership. It can be anything from 'the court only divides his share among his heirs' to 'the original deed granted full ownership to whoever survives the other' and even 'she doesn't actually own anything but a life estate, which grants her the right to live there until she dies but doesn't actually convey any ownership of the real estate'. So your question can't be answered here, it depends not only on the terms of the will but also on the deed itself.

You won't really know where things stand until the will is produced.

Sarah