Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Wisconsin
Duties & Responsibilities of an Executor
I am the executor of my mother's will. Her husband is the sole beneficiary. He is her second husband and was married 9 yrs. My mother was an artist and she has paintings in his possession that she painted before they even met and married. He wants to take these paintings and the paintings she painted after they were married. The paintings after the marriage are not in question, he can have them. Do we as the children have any right to the paintings before she married him? My mother did leave a list, but some of the paintings are not mentioned.
Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Duties & Responsibilities of an Executor
You indicate that your mother's will left everything
to her husband. If that is the case, he gets all
the paintings, even those before she married him.
We have marital property in Wisconsin, which determines
what property one's estate consists of, but in this
case it is irrelevant, since she says it all goes to him.