Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Indiana

Re: Who is Intitled to estate

To Whom It May Concern:

This is in response to your email of February 12, 2001, which we received on March 27, 2001.

You aunt�s estate will be probated in accordance with Indiana law. I am not knowledgeable about Indiana�s probate law. If your aunt were a resident of Michigan at the time of her death, you would receive a copy of the petition and the will as an �interested party� when the estate was opened with the court. I recommend that you contact an Indiana attorney to obtain answers to your specific questions.

Sincerely,

Charles L. Nichols

Re: Who is Intitled to estate

A will must be probated in the county where your aunt resided at the time of her death. This may be a different county than the one where her nursing home was located. You can check with the county recorder in the county where the real estate is located to make sure your aunt did not deed away the property before she died - or that it was not deeded away under the power of attorney. If she did not have a will, had a will under which the residuary devise lapsed or had a will which cannot be found, then her estate will descend intestate to her living siblings and the number of deceased siblings who left issue surviving the aunt (these would be neices and nephews whose parent was her brother or sister and who is now dead). A relative within that class of persons (siblings, issue of deceased siblings) are entitled to petition the probate court for appointment as administrator in order to collect the estate. This will force the person with the will to tender it to the court, allow you to see it and determine as to the time it was executed whether your aunt was mentally competent. If property is transferred within the family (or has been since the power of attorney was executed), you may want to allege that there was undue influence which caused your aunt to give all the property to one person. As a last resort, you might want to contact the attorney who prepared the will or the power of attorney, as he probably is aware of its contents and your aunt's competency at the time. Most attorneys are very careful when an elderly person is brought to their office by a younger family member to exclude that person from the conference about a will to avoid the appearance of undue influence. Another factor to consider is who within the family (siblings and neices and nephews) was close to your aunt prior to her illness or shortly after she began to fail. The persons who lived closest to her or had the most contact with her to help her with her affairs may well have been preferred by her over others who were less attentive. That might not be unnatural. You will want to consult an attorney who practices in the county where the probate process will occur.