Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

Your sister's husband would be entitled to everything assuming there is no will unless he would forfeit his share (if he killed your sister or had pre-nupial or marital settlement agreement, like where a divorce action was pending). However, if there was a will, then the task of the personal representative (I assume its the husband) is to figure out what assets are in the probate estate, pay any final debts and transfer the remaining property to your sister's beneficiaries in her will.

With a house, if the house was owned (check the deed) by your sister and her husband as husband and wife (called a tenancy by the entireties), then the house and land will automatically pass to the husband upon the minute of your sister's death. This would not be a probate asset and regardless of what the will says, the house is not going to your parents. If the house was solely owned by your sister, then look at her will. If there is no will, it would pass to her husband, as stated above, unless there is some reason he could not inherit (either an agreement or some statute).

With bank accounts, if your sister had a joint account with her husband, then any money in the joint account automatically goes to the husband too. However, if your sister had debts, then it is possible for the personal representative of your sister's estate to reclaim these funds into the estate to pay bills.

Of course, if your sister owned a joint bank account with someone else or land with someone else, then the rules would be different. For bank accounts, again, the monies would pass to the surviving joint owner but could be reclaimed into your sister's estate if needed. For property your sister owned with another person, it would depend on if the land was owned as a joint tenancy or as a tenancy in common. Again, check the deed to see what it says (look under the grantee section). If other people are named, then your sister's share would pass as per her will or via state intestacy law to her husband and the other owner(s) would keep their shares of the property. If there is language stating that their others and your sister owned the land as joint tenants with right of survivorship, then the land automatically would pass to the survivors.