Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Maryland
literary legacy
My mother, an author, left her literary properties to her four daughters. Her will does not say anything about the daughters' heirs. Two years after my mother's death, my oldest sister passed away, and her husband died a year later. I am the youngest daughter and the executor. I sent my oldest sister's share of income to her husband after her death, since he had supported and cared for her. Do I distribute income that comes to the estate to just the surviving daughters, or should I distribute my oldest sister's share among her five children?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: literary legacy
The answer depends on the terms of your mother's will and the terms of your oldest sister's will (if any). Unless your mother's will provided differently, your oldest sister's interest in the literary property would be devisable by her in her own will. Your siblings would have no interest in your oldest sister's share and it would descend according to her own will or through the laws of intestacy (if she had no will).