Q: Me and my mom live together in an apartment. My dad never lived with us. He never married mom, he married someone else.
My aunt and my mom found out from hospitals my dad passed away in 1989. He owned many properties under his name before and after marriage to another woman since he never married my mom here in California. That was 30 years ago. Searching those properties today online in his name, it's still active. Would I still be entitled to some inheritance?
A:
That depends on whether or not your father had a Will or a Trust.
He is entitled to do whatever he wants to with his property upon his death, within the limits of his not giving away community property that belongs half to his wife.
The trick is how the property is deeded. Is it just in his name, or is his wife's name on it too? Is any of it registered as a Trust? Much of the property could belong to his widow but she has just never changed the deeds.
If he died without a Will, called dying intestate, then part of his property does belong to you and any other children he might have had. Check with the Probate court in the county where he died to see if a Probate case was ever opened for him to either process his Will or to distribute his property without one. If there was no Will then you probably are owed some assets.
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