Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

There is no length of time for a divorced spouse to receive anything from a former spouse's estate. Divorce severs the relationship between the parties and it does not matter if you were married for 18 years or 18 months. The fact is that you are divorced and are not entitled to inherit anything or administer your deceased wife's estate.

If she made a will while you were married and never changed it and then you were divorced, then any provisions leaving you anything are considered revoked. In essence, you will be treated as dying before your ex-wife.

If, however, she made a will after the divorce and nonetheless decided to make you a beneficiary, in that case, you would inherit. It takes about 1-2 years to administer most estates, but if you were a beneficiary, you would have been notified by now. My guess is that you are not a beneficiary, but if you have doubts, then contact the clerk of the estates division in the county where the estate is pending (if in North Carolina) or the probate court and see if an estate has been opened for your ex-wife. If so, see if there is a will and whether you are a beneficiary. If there is no will, then you are not a beneficiary.

I have set forth the relevant statutes in North Carolina below. The only exception that I can think of would be if you and your wife still owned real property together. While the divorce would sever the marital ownership from a tenancy by the entireties to a joint tenancy, you would still retain your share of any land if the deed was not modified to provide for survivorship so that the land would automatically pass to you. If you had a joint bank account with your ex-wife, then the proceeds may still pass to you.

� 31A‑1. Acts barring rights of spouse.

(a) The following persons shall lose the rights specified in subsection (b) of this section:

(1) A spouse from whom or by whom an absolute divorce or marriage annulment has been obtained or from whom a divorce from bed and board has been obtained

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(b) The rights lost as specified in subsection (a) of this section shall be as follows:

(1) All rights of intestate succession in the estate of the other spouse;

(2) All right to claim or succeed to a homestead in the real property of the other spouse;

(3) All right to petition for an elective share of the estate of the other spouse and take either the elective intestate share provided or the life interest in lieu thereof;

(4) All right to any year's allowance in the personal property of the other spouse;

(5) All right to administer the estate of the other spouse; and

(6) Any rights or interests in the property of the other spouse which by a settlement before or after marriage were settled upon the offending spouse solely in consideration of the marriage.