Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

Your post makes no sense. Obviously if a spouse is deceased then how could you wait for them to pass? The person is already dead.

You state nothing relevant. Who died? When? Did the dead person have a will? What exactly are you to inherit? Land? Money? Something else? If there is a will, what does it say?

I assume from your disjointed statement that someone has died leaving you an inheritance and the dead person is survived by a spouse, you and any other beneficiaries and that your question is whether you have to wait until the surviving spouse dies to get what is coming to you under the will.

The answer is it depends because I have not seen the will and don't know what the item is or how it is titled.

The rule generally is that the will covers only probate assets. Things like jointly titled land with right of survivorship, joint bank accounts or some other beneficiary designated asset like pensions or life insurance are not governed by the will and pass to the designated named beneficiary. So for non-probate assets, these pass directly to you if you are the named beneficiary and there is no waiting for someone else to die.

If we are talking about probate assets, then the rule is that first the debts of the estate have to be paid before heirs/beneficiaries get anything except for the family allowance (called a yearly allowance or spousal allowance in some places). If there is enough money, all creditors are paid and the heirs/beneficiaries get what is left at the conclusion of the estate (after the final account is confirmed) unless the executor has made an early distribution. But there is no waiting for someone else to die in general. If there is not enough money to pay heirs/beneficiaries, then gifts are adeemed in a specific order. If there is not enough money to pay creditors, heirs get nothing and creditors are paid in order of priority as set forth in the statutes governing estate administration.

It would be unusual for a will to state that it leaves property to a beneficiary but only after a surviving spouse is dead. If that is what the testator wanted then the proper thing would have been to set up a trust. The only exception might be a life estate where a person (like a surviving spouse) is given lifetime rights to live in a house with the beneficiary getting the property when the surviving spouse dies. If there is a life estate, then the answer is yes, you do have to wait until the lifetime tenant dies.

However, you need to start with reading the will and seeing what it specifically says about your inheritance. If you do not understand, then you will need to pay a probate attorney who practices in the county/state where the will is being probated to review it.