Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Indiana

Re: Address Change After Death?

You need to take the original will to the local probate court to probate it or at least spread it of record (whereby the Judge determines that it is a valid will). Someone merely saying it's not valid is no proof, you need the probate judge to say so. Obviously you realize that the probate estate and the will are operative on only the property your brother owns alone (or owned in his name only at the time of his death). What you may not know is that regardless of the will, his surviving spouse has the right to the survivor's allowance for the estate, which has priority over what he left his daughter in the will. Unless the value of all the property he owned alone exceeds the value of the survivor's allowance, then it would not matter whether the will was valid or not because there would be nothing for the daughter to inherit under the will. The fact that the widow moved away and had the mail addressed to the decedent forwarded to her new address is not unusual, as the post office will continue to deliver mail after a person's death and keep doing so until someone writes deceased or unknown on the unopened envelopes. I note that your brother apparently got married after the will was written, so that the widow would also have the right to elect against the estate for her share (in this case 1/2) of the value after the expenses (which include the survivor's allowance). If you proceed in Court with this matter, you will be forcing the widow to come forward and prove the value of the property to show that it was rightfully taken by her or whether there was something that ought to have been left over for the daughter. Since the probate assets are so slim (except maybe the scooter's value) there would be little to no money to pay the attorney except out of your pocket or the daughter's pocket since she is the person who appears to have lost out. However, the original will, if you have it, ought to be placed on record with the court.