Q: Are deceased sibling's children now "issues" to an uncle's intestate estate in PA entitled to funds therefrom?
I would like clarification--my deceased mother was alive when my uncle passed away, and she passed away
20 years ago before my uncle's intestate estate was recently settled by an attorney/administrator. Since I was
not a beneficiary to my mother's 20 year old estate, the sole beneficiary informed me that any distribution
I would have from my uncle is out of her choice to do so. Since we are both "issues" with respect to my uncle's
intestate PA estate, wouldn't she be obligated to provide my equal share of the funds allocated to us?
After all, there is really no estate of my deceased mother--everything was transferred to my sister--thereby
becoming her estate, not my mother's. Since we are blood relatives of our uncle (our mother was his sister),
one cannot ignore the fact that we are both children of our deceased mother, the sibling of our uncle, and
entitled to share in the funds of his intestate PA estate.
A:
It is unclear from your summary whether your mother had a Will or not. These are very fact intensive and time sensitive issues. In general, based on your description above, if your mother was alive when your uncle died, and your mother was a beneficiary of his estate at the time of his death, then your mother died after your uncle, but before his estate was distributed, your mother's estate would receive the distributions from your uncle's estate.
You state above that you were not a beneficiary of your mother's estate. If I read that to mean that your mother had a Will, and you were disinherited under her Will, then you would not share in her estate (or her share of your uncle's estate).
If your mother died without a will (intestate), then you would be a beneficiary of her estate and thus might be entitled to a share of your uncle's estate. This is not as easy question and will require a meeting with an estate attorney and a detailed review of your uncle's estate and your mother's estate.
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