Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: probate a will

This is probably true, but it also depends upon how assets were registered, individually or jointly. A Will only operates on individually owned assets, not those owned jointly or which have a designated beneficiary, which go directly by survivorship or beneficiary designation. So, an analysis needs to be made of each estate before anything is done, to determine the need for 2 probates. This also depends upon the language in the Wills and how much time passed between each death. For example, I usually include a clause that says if the original beneficiary does not survive for a specified period of time, that person is deemed to have predeceased the Will maker, thus providing the estate goes to those named who have survivved. If you could get me copies of each Will, assets owned by each person and how registered, and dates of death, I can provide a better answer. If in doubt, or there are individual assets still in the name of the first to die, or there is no clause like I use, both Wills should be probated.

Re: probate a will

Each Will has to be probated.