Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Alabama
I am single, 58 years old with no children. My father died Intestate 50 years ago with four children and a wife, leaving his home to all of us. My mother paid the home off with his life insurance and left the home in my father's name. My mother remarried and lived in the home during those years where they had a daughter (half-sister to all dad's children). Two brothers have passed away, one with no dependents and one with one son. Now the beneficiaries are my mother, 2 children of my father and one grandchild.
MY QUESTIONS ARE: Since I have no beneficiaries of my own, may I designate my half-sister as my beneficiary should I pass before my other sibling? Do I have the right to leave my inheritance (home) to anyone outside our family name?
1 Answer from Attorneys
What makes you think you inherited any part of the house? If your father died intestate with four children and a wife who was the mother of the children, the home would go in an intestate sucession to the wife, not the children. Was an estate opened at that time? When your father died, how was title held on the deed? The life insurance proceeds, if your mother was the beneficiary, were her property, and she used the proceeds to pay off the house that devolves to her. If I have the facts straight, you and your siblings don't inherit anything. Your mother's heirs are, her husband, her children who are the children of her and her husband, and her children who are not the children of her present husband. Take a look at http://www.mystatewill.com/states/AL/ALintcalc.htm which is a intestate calculator for the state of Alabama. In answer to your question, I don't think you have inherited anything from your father. Please contact me if I have the facts incorrectly stated.
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