Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: items not listed in a Will

The will does not magically appear at the court house. Someone will need to make the determination if the will needs to be probated. As for the belongings, if they are mentioned in the will as you say, then the will dictates where they go. Please feel free to give me a call or drop me an email. Good Luck

Re: items not listed in a Will

Since most items of personal property do not have documents of title, it can be difficult to establish who owned them. Assuming you can establish ownership, those items would go in accordance with your mother's Will. Even if the Will didn't specifically mention personal property, it would normally contain a catch-all statement directing disposition of the "residuary estate" (everything not specifically named). So if you were the beneficiary of her residuary estate, you would get those items.

The person named as Executor in the Will should take the Will and file it in the Surrogates Court in the County where she resided. If you are the Executor, you may want to hire a local attorney to help you. If not, and the Executor doesn't get the Will filed promptly, you may still want to get a local attorney to help move the process along.

Re: items not listed in a Will

First of all, please accept my condolences on your loss.

Generally speaking, a Will does not itemize all of the personal property a person owns. Wills tend to make general provisions for the distribution of property such as, "All of my property to my son/daughter" or "My Estate shall be divided equally between my Children"...

Do you have a copy of the Will? If so, you might want to contact the nominated Exceutor to find out when he or she will be filing it with the Court. If you do not have a copy of the Will, are you certain that your Mother left a Will? If your Mother did not leave a Will, you as her only child will be declared her sole heir, unless she left a spouse or if any of her other children (if any) pre-deceased her and left children surviving.

Do you know if your Mother owned any other assets? Such as bank accounts or other property held in her name individually. If your Mother did not own any such assets, then it may not be neccessary to Probate the Will.

Since you are in Florida, it maybe helpful for you to retain an Attorney in New York to investigate these issues for you. I would be happy to discuss this further with you, so please contact me @ (716) 856-4022. Thank you.

Re: items not listed in a Will

The will needs to be probated, that is presented to the court. Normally all items are discussed in the will, not necessary by name but in clauses such as "All personal property" or words to the like. If not mentioned specifically and there is no residuary clause, the property would descend according to the laws of the state, first to surviving spouse, and next ordinarily to surviving children.

Should you like to discuss this or any other legal matter, you can call my office to schedule an appointment for a consultation or in the alternative, I can be reached for on-phone low-cost legal consultation at 1-800-275-5336 x0233699.