[GM404]

My wife's remaining parent passed away recently and I'm looking for advice so I can help my wife and, potentially, brother-in-law handle the process of inheritance as well as paying off any debts of the deceased. They have a family lawyer that is involved, but I'd like to get some information from others who have gone through this before, as well as other lawyers that may view this from a more neutral position. I may not have everything as accurate as possible because I have not seen the Will and Testament, but I understand it to be as follows:

Executor - Brother-in-law
Beneficiaries - my wife and brother-in-law
Inheritance Stipulations - my wife and brother-in-law are to split all estate assets 50/50 with the exception of the home, that is solely willed to my brother-in-law for him to sell for the purpose of paying for graduate school.

We have only handled the life insurance and funeral/cremation part, so that should all be settled quickly. My understanding is life insurance proceeds are not part of the estate, is that correct?

Would the handling of any debts of the deceased and how these come out of the estate. What is the overall process of handling this with the estate?

Would a fully paid home be protected from liquidation to pay off estate debts if it's willed (not sold) to a beneficiary?

From what I can find, if liquidation of all assets only pays off a certain amount (let's say $150,000 is the max value of the estate's assets but there's $200,000 in total debt) then the credit/medical companies are SOL for the other $50,000. Is that correct?

They're both beneficiaries to the retirement account but are non-spouse retirement benefits considered part of the estate? I'm not sure if it's 401K, IRA, etc. just that it's a "retirement account."

There are a couple of disputes right now, one which is the substantially uneven split of assets, and the brother-in-law's verbal attacks at my wife which he used to justify why he should get more than her. Another is more of a potential dispute should the executor choose to liquidate the 50/50 assets first to pay off debt so that way he'd lose less when the home is sold.

Any of y'all ever had disputes of similar natures? If so, did y'all ever work it out?

Thanks

This tells me right now that not an attorney on this board will address your multitude of questions. Of course I could be wrong, but I think your best bet is get an attorney that will actually represent YOU...not give you some general answers that may or may not apply.

 

[GM404]

I have told my wife if her half brother tries to contest her fathers will there are going to be problems. He is a 40 year old POS that has nearly 200,000 in student loans living on pell grants and welfare working part time if any and has not graduated in the 10 years I have known my wife. He is only willed a "fishing equipment".

Plus you can add a statement in the will explicitly telling them they get nothing and if they try to claim otherwise, it will act as an absolute bar to any claim so then they will be SOL. My Dad have one of his kids a sum of cash for a house down payment and out in the will that he already got what he was going to get and to bugger off.