My husband’s will
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My husband’s will
My husband passed away last year, he did have a Will. The problem is, in the will he left his mother $60,000 and everything else to me. But we never had $60,000 in the bank or anywhere else. When my mother in law sees the will, I know she will expect the 60k, but how am I supposed to come up with that money? Can she make me sell the house? I have 2 small children, I’ve already paid for his funeral, I’ve been paying the mortgage, I had his car transferred to my name and am paying that note etc. Will I need to lawyer up? The will has been prorated. She lives out of state, my husband passed from cancer in March 2016. My mother in law called last week asking for the will, she said my husband told her he was going to pay her house off if he passed. But again, where does that money come from? He did have an insurance policy, she got 20 of that. What should I do?
Asked on January 6, 2017 under Estate Planning, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Get a lawyer: you need the attorney to review with you all your assets, how you own them, how you acquired them, etc. Certain assets will pass directly to you, not as part of the estate (e.g. if you and your husband owned the house together, as joint tenants with right of survivorship, or JTROS; in that case, one owner or "tenant" passes, the home automatically becomes solely owned by the surviving "tenant" without it being part of the decedent's (the person who died) estate) and your mother-in-law should not be able to exert a claim against them; but other assets, which do go through the estate, may have to go to her as per the will. You need a probate attorney to "inventory" everything with you and let you know what is, and is not, at risk. Then you can decide what to do.
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