Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Maybe, but it is difficult.

Under NY EPTL section 2-1.7, "A person who is absent for a continuous period of three years, during which, after diligent search, he or she has not been seen or heard of or from, and whose absence is not satisfactorily explained shall be presumed, in any action or proceeding involving any property of such person, contractual or property rights contingent upon his or her death or the administration of his or her estate, to have died three years after the date such unexplained absence commenced, or on such earlier date as clear and convincing evidence establishes is the most probable date of death."

Therefore, what you would have to do is retain a private investigator or a firm to conduct a diligent search for your father-in-law's wife to determine her whereabouts. If the PI finds her, she retains the money. There is nothing you may do. However, if the PI discovers that she died or, after a diligent search, her whereabouts are unknown, she may be presumed dead. If that is the case, the money would be deemed an asset of the estate for distribution either intestate or under a will.

Mike.

I agree with Mike, but he also may be able to get a Court Order through the probate, that cuts off the former spouse from clasiming this benefit.