Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

It depends. On a lot of information which you do not relate. First, was the will properly drafted by an attorney and did it correctly disinherit the children? If so, then the answer is probably very little recourse provided that the man was mentally competent when he made his will and was not acting under any influence of the girlfriend. If the will was not drafted by an attorney, is the man still alive? If he is still alive, mentally competent and not under any influence, if its wish to disinherit his children or not make them the primary beneficiary, then he really needs to have a will done by an attorney and done right.

If the will does not mention the children at all, then the children could file what is called a caveat to the will. They can try and challenge the will on the grounds that it is invalid by either lack of testamentary capacity, fraud or undue influence, or they can possibly argue that they were accidentally omitted from the will. Will the children succeed? Who knows? They would need evidence for whatever basis they choose to challenge the will on. If they have no evidence they are not likely to succeed but if they find the right lawyer, they could use the threat of a lawsuit or an actual lawsuit in order to extract a settlement. Bottom line - if the man is alive, he needs to make sure his will is properly drafted to eliminate/minimize the possibility of a successful caveat.

One final word - the fact that the man inherited money from his dead wife is not relevant. Yoiur question assumes somehoiw that the children would have a right to this money. They don't. Their mother left money or other assets to her husband, the children's father. He is free to do what he wants with it unless it was somehow made conditional. The children do not have a right to anything under their mother's will unless she made them the beneficiary of it. The children only have a possible claim to whatever probate assets their father owns at the time of his death, but it will depend on what these assets are and how they are titled. Not all assets are probate assets. Things like life insurance benefits, IRAs, 401(k)s/retirement, joint bank accounts and jointly owned real estate with right of survivorship all pass outside of probate. Depending on what the father has, he could still find a way to pass assets to girlfriend and avoid any challenge at all by his children if the assets are all non-probate. If that happens, the children could still possibly assert a claim against girlfriend, but it would be very very difficult to prove if there is no undue influence by the girlfriend.