Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Louisiana
How would succession work if you had 3 children with one woman who dies and then that man re-marries and had 2 more children with his 2nd wife and then he dies. No succession was open when either person died. His 2nd wife and all his 5 kids are alive and they are selling 2 acres of property worth 1 million dollars. How would that money be split? Property was purchased by husband and wife in 1st marriage.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Successions will have to be opened before the property is sold or the buyer will not do the deal. Basically, and this is a very simple answer based on the simple question, here is what would happen. Of course we assume no wills. When mother dies, the 3 children would inherit her 1/2 interest in the property, or 1/6th each in the whole piece. When dad dies, All 5 children inherit his 1/2 interest, or 1/10th of the whole piece. To figure the shares you need to figure the lowest common denominator. That would be 30. So, each of the 5 would inherit 3/30ths of the whole through father, and the first 3 would each get 5/30ths of the whole through the mother. In the end, the first 3 would get 8/30ths each, or 24/30ths total, and the other 2 would get 3/30ths each. Each 1/30th is worth about $33,333, so the frist 3 would get about $266,664 each and the other 2 would get about $99,999 each. Give or take a few pennies, court costs and attorney's fees.